The Lord’s Supper in the Early Church: Covenant Extension or Eucharistic Presence? (original) (raw)
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The Myth of the "Lord's Supper": Paul's Eucharistic Terminology and its Ancient Reception
The New Testament writings themselves provide only a little evidence for meal nomenclature. “Lord’s supper” (1 Cor 11:20) has been given a unique emphasis by modern interpreters; some claim it was widespread or even prevalent in earliest Christianity. Yet despite Paul’s use of the term, there is no (other) clear instance of “Lord’s Supper” as the name for a distinctive meal of the kind later and more commonly known as “Eucharist” in first three centuries CE. A more adequate account of nomenclature for communal meals in those Christian communities belongs among various elements of the quest for a fuller description of the historical reality of those meals.
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2021
In a brief survey of texts on the Eucharist by Ambrose, Augustine, Dionysius, Maximus, and Ephrem, I bring out the difference between the Eastern Orthodox and the western Catholic understanding of the Eucharist. I conclude that the materiality of the Eucharist underlie the difference, not to unite but to signify sacrifice beyond signification of symbols.
Rethinking Eucharistic Origins
Accounts of Eucharistic origins have usually been driven by concern to establish the genealogy of later liturgical practices, and reflect broader narratives of early Christian history as either smooth transition or radical fall from primitive ideals. A more comprehensive account of early Eucharistic practice must give attention to Greco-Roman meal con- ventions, acknowledge the diversity of form and meaning in early Christian meals, and be more cautious about grand narratives. It would allow for consideration not only of the explicit theologies of prayer texts, but of implicit meanings involved in ritual, foods and other elements of meals. Such an emerging new paradigm may provide both a more adequate narrative of the development of the Christian Eucharist in classical historical terms, and richer interpretations of meals as a key aspect of early Christian practice.
The Last Supper and the Holy Mass according to the teaching of the Roman Church – an ecumenical perspective, 2022
The article describes the Mass as a celebration not primarily performed by a validly ordained priest who does so in the historical past after the Last Supper. The article shows the celebration performed by each priest as a celebration in the Upper Room, where Jesus celebrates it the night before His death at the cross at Golgotha. The man-celebrant and his Eucharistic community are moved by the power of God into the Upper Room every time when they celebrate Eucharist in their historically distant time from the time of Jesus's celebration. The main celebrant of each Eucharist is Jesus celebrating in the Upper Room before His Death at Golgotha; every priest-celebrant participates in His priesthood in His historically once-time celebration. The author articulates the truth of the Holy Mass as the making present of us in the Last Supper. It is quite the opposite of making present the Last Supper in our celebration of the Holy Mass – as it is according to the common understanding. This understanding of making-present creates a new perspective in the ecumenical dialog. Table of contents: Introduction 1. What is the Holy Mass in relation to the Last Supper? 2. The making present of the Glory of Jesus after the making present of His Sacrifice 3. The time after the Last Supper and after the Holy Masskairos 4. Appendix: Clarification of the problems of Pius XII's time Conclusion The article was published in Polish in 2004 as part of the book: J. Immakulata Adamska OCD, W zadziwieniu Eucharystią. Rok Eucharystyczny 2004-2005 [In Amazement of the Eucharist. The Eucharistic Year 2004-2005], Borne-Sulinowo 2004, pp. 246-260. The translation into English was published first on the Academia.edu website on 7. December 2022.
Participation in Christ: Paul and Pre-Pauline Eucharistic Tradition
2018
Recent scholarship has highlighted the centrality of the concept of participation in Christ in Paul’s theology. While scholars recognise that one of the key elements in Paul’s account of participation in Christ is the believer’s participation in the narrative of Christ’s death and resurrection, there is less agreement about the origin of Paul’s participatory theology. Scholars debate whether he simply developed in distinctive ways a widely held participationist belief, or effectively generated a new way of thinking about salvation. The present study argues that Paul’s understanding of how the believer participates in the narrative of Christ’s death and resurrection can be traced back to pre-Pauline Christian beliefs that are reflected in, and partly shaped by, the practice of the Eucharist, which must be understood against the background of Passover and the concept of covenant. The traceability of Paul’s narrative account shows that Paul’s participatory theology is shaped by categories drawn from the Mosaic Torah, an observation that further distinguishes this analysis of Paul’s thought from the alternative participatory approach associated with the ”apocalyptic Paul” school. While these are not entirely new claims, those who have made them recently offer little engagement with two distinct bodies of scholarship that, if correct, would falsify their arguments entirely. The present study addresses this problem by challenging both the recent socio-cultural research on eucharistic origins, which has suggested that the earliest meals of the Jesus movement had no participatory significance and no connection with Jewish Passover traditions, and also the claims of the rabbinics scholars, who have proposed that the Second Temple Passover meal had very little, if any, engagement with the exodus narrative, and therefore could not have been the source from which early Christians drew their understanding of participation in the narrative of Jesus’s death and resurrection.