Real presence of Christ in the Eucharist

Real presence is a term used in various Christian traditions to express belief that Jesus Christ is really present in the elements of the Eucharist, and that his presence is not merely symbolic, metaphorical, or by his activity alone, ideas common amongst the Radical Reformers and their followers.

Not all Christian traditions accept this doctrine, and there are considerable differences in the understanding of the "reality" of the presence. Efforts at mutual understanding of the range of beliefs led in the 1980s to consultations on Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry (BEM) through the World Council of Churches, consultations that included the Catholic Church.

Different understandings

The Catholic Church understands the presence of Christ in the Eucharist as real, though not in a physical or "carnal" sense, and as coming about through a real change of the elements of bread and wine into the body and the blood of Christ, a change sometimes referred to as transubstantiation.Lutherans believe in a real eating and drinking of the body and blood of Christ, which they say is done by sacramental union: "in, with and under the forms" of bread and wine.Anglicans and Orthodox Christians generally prefer a view of objective presence that maintains a definitive change, but allows how that change occurs to remain a mystery. Likewise, Methodists postulate a par excellence presence as being a "Holy Mystery". Reformed Protestants speak of a real but spiritual presence and stress that Holy Communion is a "spiritual feeding". Certain other Protestant traditions (for instance, Baptists and some contemporary evangelicals) simply reject outright the doctrine of the real presence of Christ's body and blood in the Eucharist. These differences correspond to literal or figurative interpretations of Christ's Words of Institution.