Transubstantiation
Transubstantiation is, according to the teaching of the Catholic Church, "the change of the whole substance of bread into the substance of the Body of Christ and of the whole substance of wine into the substance of the Blood of Christ". This change is brought about in the eucharistic prayer through the efficacy of the word of Christ and by the action of the Holy Spirit. However, "the outward characteristics of bread and wine, that is the 'eucharistic species', remain unaltered". In this teaching, the notions of "substance" and "transubstantiation" are not linked with any particular theory of metaphysics.
The Catholic Church teaches that, in the Eucharistic offering, bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of Christ. The affirmation of this doctrine on the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist was expressed, using the word "transubstantiate", by the Fourth Council of the Lateran in 1215. It was later challenged by various 14th-century reformers, John Wycliffe in particular.
The manner in which the change occurs, the Catholic Church teaches, is a mystery: "The signs of bread and wine become, in a way surpassing understanding, the Body and Blood of Christ." In Lutheranism, the terminology used regarding the real presence is the doctrine of the sacramental union, in which the "very body and blood of Christ" is received. In the Greek Orthodox Church, the doctrine has been discussed under the term of metousiosis, coined as a direct loan-translation of transubstantiatio in the 17th century. In Eastern Orthodoxy in general, the Sacred Mystery of the Eucharist is more commonly discussed using alternative terms such as "trans-elementation", "re-ordination", or simply "change".
In the Reformed tradition, a real spiritual presence is taught; this view is held in Anglicanism, especially by those of the Evangelical-Reformed tradition, though others including those of the High Church tradition hold to a corporeal presence.
History
Apostolic period
The New Testament does not use the term transubstantiation or set out an explicit doctrine of transubstantiation. The key passages cited for teaching are Jesus's words at the Last Supper where he said "This is my body" and "This is my blood," and Paul's received tradition in 1 Corinthians 11:23–26.The Last Supper reports a meal with bread and wine on the eve of Jesus' crucifixion, in which he identifies the bread as his body and the cup as his blood, and commands repetition "in memory" of him "until he comes." By the mid-1st century Christians made sharing a loaf and cup regular practice, with Paul's tradition treating the bread and cup as participation in Jesus' body and blood.
According to Leppin, an "ontological interpretation" began only later but became decisive for Latin theology, with the doctrine of transubstantiation giving "philosophical expression" to the real presence under the transformed forms of bread and wine.
Patristic period
The early Church Fathers used strongly realist language about the Eucharist while showing limited interest in defining the precise mode of Christ's presence, often leaving the manner of the change a mystery. Specifically during the period c. 100–325 AD, the doctrine of the Lord's Supper "remained indefinite and obscure", with the ancient church prioritizing "worthy participation" over logical definition and making it unhistorical to impose later theories onto this era.Gregg R. Allison characterizes early church Eucharistic theology as understanding "the Lord's Supper in a variety of ways", thereby distinguishing later Catholic doctrine from diverse patristic approaches.
During the patristic period a "symbol" was commonly understood as a participating presence rather than a mere sign, so the Fathers could call the Eucharist both Christ's body and its "figure", "type", or "symbol" without contradiction. Later "realist" versus "symbolist" labels impose anachronistic categories on this Platonist sacramental worldview.
Catholic readings of patristic quotes
The Didache, an early Christian church order, states: "Let no one eat or drink of your Eucharist, unless they have been baptized into the name of the Lord, for... 'Give not that which is holy to the dogs'." Kelly notes that it calls the Eucharist a "sacrifice" and describes the bread and wine as "holy" spiritual food and drink communicating immortal life. Catholic theologians cite this as early evidence that believers understood the Eucharist as more than a memorial.Ignatius of Antioch, writing around 106, declares: "I desire the bread of God,... the bread of life, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ..., and I desire the drink of God,... His blood, which is incorruptible love and eternal life." In his letter to the Smyrnaeans he warns that "heretics" "abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ." Scholars treat this realism as a boundary marker that later Catholic teaching developed conceptually.
Around 150, Justin Martyr wrote: "Not as common bread and common drink do we receive these, but... the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh." Ferguson and Kelly note Justin's contrast between "common" food and the consecrated elements. Catholic authors cite scholastic transubstantiation as a later explanation of this inherited realism.
Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian both use "symbol" and "figure" language for the Eucharist, though scholars dispute whether this excludes real presence. Kelly and Ferguson note that Clement calls wine a "mystical symbol" of Christ's blood yet also speaks of the Eucharistic wine as a mingling of the Logos with material substance that sanctifies body and soul. In ancient symbolic realism, "figure" and "symbol" make present what they signify. Catholic theologians therefore read their symbolic language as participatory realism compatible with later transubstantiation.
File:Eucharistic bread.jpg|thumb|right|A 3rd-century fresco in the Catacomb of Callixtus, which Joseph Wilpert interprets as depicting Christ's multiplication of the loaves and fishes and the deceased attaining eternal happiness through participation in the Eucharist.
Irenaeus, in Against Heresies 5.2.3, writes that "the mingled cup and the manufactured bread receives the Word of God." In the same passage, Irenaeus quotes Ephesians 5:30, including the longer textual reading: "we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones." The disputed Greek phrase is "receives the Word/word of God". Priest William A. Jurgens argues that Irenaeus's Eucharistic teaching is "more indicative of an impanation mentality than of later transubstantiation," noting that Irenaeus does not explain how Christ is present in the elements. By contrast, Bradley Green suggests that "in light of later Western developments, it seems appropriate to recognize a hope of transubstantiation in Irenaeus."
The Apostolic Constitutions instructs: "Let the bishop give the oblation, saying, The body of Christ; and let him that receiveth say, Amen." Kelly situates this formula within a fourth-century Eastern tradition that speaks of a "change" or "transelementation" into Christ's body and blood. Catholic theologians cite this as evidence of assumed real conversion.
Ambrose of Milan taught a literal change in the elements: "This bread is bread before the words of the sacraments. When consecration has been added, from bread it becomes the body of Christ." Kelly and Papandrea describe Ambrose as a Western exponent of "conversion" language, including his insistence that the consecratory word "changes the species of the elements." Catholic scholars treat this as a patristic precursor to later transubstantiation doctrine.
Cyril of Jerusalem urges communicants to trust Christ's words that the elements have been "changed" despite their appearances, while Gregory of Nyssa and Chrysostom speak of the bread and wine being "transelemented" and "refashioned". Catholic theology cites this shared vocabulary as early conversion language later expressed by the term "transubstantiation".
Augustine declared that the bread consecrated in the Eucharist "becomes" the Body of Christ: "The faithful know what I'm talking about; they know Christ in the breaking of bread. It isn't every loaf of bread, you see, but the one receiving Christ's blessing, that becomes the body of Christ." Despite Augustine's frequent sign and symbol language, Kelly and Ferguson judge that he accepted the period's realism, distinguishing between the visible sacramental sign and the invisible gift. Catholic interpreters therefore treat his position as compatible with later doctrine.
Middle Ages
The doctrine of transubstantiation in the technical sense is regarded as a late development in Catholic theology, with the term emerging in medieval Latin theology, receiving conciliar expression at the Fourth Lateran Council, and being given a full scholastic exposition in Thomas Aquinas's Summa theologiae.Transubstantiation is a Eucharistic doctrine that explains the change of the bread and wine into the body and blood of the risen Christ in terms of a change of "substance" while the "accidents" remain.
Paschasius Radbertus was a Carolingian theologian, and the abbot of Corbie, whose most well-known and influential work is an exposition on the nature of the Eucharist written around 831, entitled De Corpore et Sanguine Domini. In it, Paschasius agrees with Ambrose in affirming that the Eucharist contains the true, historical body of Jesus Christ. According to Paschasius, God is truth itself, and therefore, his words and actions must be true. Christ's proclamation at the Last Supper that the bread and wine were his body and blood must be taken literally, since God is truth. He thus believes that the change of the substances of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ offered in the Eucharist really occurs. Only if the Eucharist is the actual body and blood of Christ can a Christian know it is salvific.
In the 11th century, Berengar of Tours stirred up opposition when he denied that any material change in the elements was needed to explain the fact of the Real Presence. His position was never diametrically opposed to that of his critics, and he was probably never excommunicated, but the controversies that he aroused forced people to clarify the doctrine of the Eucharist.
The earliest known use of the term transubstantiation to describe the change from bread and wine to body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist was by Hildebert de Lavardin, Archbishop of Tours, in the late 11th century. By the end of the 12th century the term was in widespread use.
The Fourth Council of the Lateran in 1215 spoke of the bread and wine as "transubstantiated" into the body and blood of Christ: "His body and blood are truly contained in the sacrament of the altar under the forms of bread and wine, the bread and wine having been transubstantiated, by God's power, into his body and blood". Catholic scholars and clergy have noted numerous reports of Eucharistic miracles contemporary with the council, and at least one such report was discussed at the council. It was not until later in the 13th century that Aristotelian metaphysics was accepted and a philosophical elaboration in line with that metaphysics was developed, which found classic formulation in the teaching of Thomas Aquinas and in the theories of later Catholic theologians in the medieval period.