Transubstantiation

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Geneva,

 

Your question in the points section concerning transubstantiation may be answered below. I am starting a new topic as I'm not sure the question and discussion is appropriate in the "Points" section. I am still lurking, learning the protocol and correctness of demeanor for this forum. I'm relatively sure the copy/paste of a portion of The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church will not consist of a copyright infringement.

 

Transubstantiation

In the theology of the Eucharist, the conversion of the whole substance of the bread and wine into the whole substance of the Body and Blood of Christ, only the accidents (i.e. the appearances of the bread and wine) remaining. The word was in widespread use in the later part of the 12th cent., and at the Lateran Council of 1215 the Eucharistic elements were said to be ‘transubstantiated’ into the Body and Blood of Christ; but the elaboration of the doctrine was not achieved till after the acceptance of the Aristotelian metaphysics later in the 13th cent., when it found classic formulation in the teaching of St Thomas Aquinas. At the Council of Trent (sess. 13, cap. 4) the medieval doctrine was reaffirmed, but with a minimum of technical philosophical language; ‘transubstantiation’ was confirmed as the ‘most apt’ term to describe the conversion.

 

Cross, F. L. ; Livingstone, Elizabeth A.: The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 3rd ed. rev. Oxford; New York : Oxford University Press, 2005, S. 1648