4 Views of the Eucharist with regard to the presence of Christs body

1. Zwinglian (e.g., most Baptists): The Eucharist is a Biblical ordinance which Christians put
into practice in obedience to Christ as a token or symbol of their faith and their membership in
his body. Christs physical body is not literally present in the Eucharist. The Eucharist is a
memorial (because Christ said, Do this in memory of me) reminding us of what Christ did for
us once for all on the cross.
2. Calvinist (e.g., Presbyterians): Christs body is present at the Eucharist, but not "locally
present," i.e. not present in any particular place or locality (e.g., not in the bread, not in your
mouth). Christs presence is spiritual, not bodilyin the power of his life-giving flesh, but not
in its material substance. His body is located literally in heaven, but it is present by the power of
the Holy Spirit for all who believe. If we receive the bread and wine in faith, it is as if we were
raised on high by the power of the Spirit to partake of his flesh in heaven. For that's where his
resurrected body remains, until he comes again in glory. The liturgies informed by Calvins
theology typically say: as truly as we eat this bread, we partake of his body. But we partake of
his body by faith, not by chewing it with our teeth. Those who take the sacrament without faith
receive bread and wine, but not the body and blood of Christ.
3. Lutheran (often called Real Presence). Christ is present bodily, not just spiritually. His body
is present in the bread. (Lutherans like to say it is "in, with and under" the bread. But I think
just plain "in" is clearer). The body is present in the bread just as truly as the bread is present in
your mouth. Since Christ is bodily present in the bread, all who eat it are eating his body, even if
they don't believe (but without faith it does their soul harm rather than good). How this is all
possible is something we can't fully explain, but it has to do with the fact that we are talking
about his resurrected, glorified body. Also, he has ascended to heaven, which does not mean
some place in the sky (you're not going to get there in a spaceship) but at God's right handand
Gods right hand is everywhere. Thus Christ's body can be everywhere, while remaining at
God's right hand. So it is literally his body, right there in the bread and in our mouths. But we
should remember it is his glorified body. We chew it with our teeth, but we dont do it any harm
(his glorified body cannot be cut up, digested, etc.). And it is locally present, located in space, in
the sense that it's right there in the bread in our mouthseven though it's not contained or
limited by the bread, because Christ's body is present in every place that God is present.
4. Roman Catholic (Transubstantiation): Christ is indeed bodily present in the Eucharist (as the
Lutherans say). The great difference is that for Catholics, there is no bread left. The bread has
been wholly changed into Christs body, and the wine into his blood. So in the Eucharist you
still have the appearance of bread and wine, looking and tasting exactly like bread and wine,
which is to say (in technical terms) that you have the accidents of bread and wine. But in its
substance (i.e. in its true, underlying reality) these are not bread and wine but the body and blood
of Christ. Just as a change of form is called a trans-formation, this unique and miraculous
change of substance is called tran-substantiation.
In short, in the Eucharist:
1. For Zwingli, Christs body is not present, but is symbolized by the bread.
2. For Calvinist, Christs body is spiritually but not locally present.
3. For Lutherans, Christs body is locally present, literally in the bread.
4. For Roman Catholics (and Eastern Orthodox), the bread has been changed into Christs body.