Theological glossary · FaithLogic

Real presence

The teaching that Christ is truly and objectively present in the Eucharist, not merely remembered or symbolised.

English 'real' (as opposed to figurative) + 'presence'.

'This is my body' (Matt 26:26); 'the bread that we break, is it not a participation (koinonia) in the body of Christ?' (1 Cor 10:16); the warnings of 1 Cor 11:27–29; John 6:53–58.

Assumed by the earliest witnesses (Ignatius, Justin, Irenaeus); questioned in the ninth and eleventh centuries in the West; variously defined by Catholics (transubstantiation), Lutherans (sacramental union), and the Reformed (spiritual presence by the Spirit).

The traditions that hold it disagree on the mode, not usually on the fact.

Memorialist (Zwinglian) Christians deny an objective presence, holding the Supper to be a memorial and a confession.

Open in the glossary for related terms and the doctrines this concept appears in.