5 Must-Read Books on the Eucharist
One of the frustrations of writing one’s doctoral dissertation on the Eucharist is the voluminous literature on the subject. In the footnotes of every book one reads, one finds five more books one must read. This list cannot, therefore, be considered complete. There are far too many books on my to-read list for me to pretend to speak authoritatively. What follows, then, is more like a progress report. I have spent three years reading about the Eucharist and, so far, if I had to recommend five books to an interested reader, these are the five.
1. Summa Theologiae, St. Thomas Aquinas
Though reading Thomas is an odd experience for the unacquainted, the church has chosen to rely on him, on this question in particular, for good reason. It can be difficult to discern it while plowing through obscure quaestios, but Thomas’s work on the Eucharist is a masterful and balanced synthesis that heartily affirms the Church’s traditional understanding of Christ’s Eucharistic presence while skillfully avoiding many of the excesses of his time. It is a shame that he has been so widely employed to promote those very excesses in subsequent generations, often by people who haven’t read him.
2. Corpus Mysticum, Henri de Lubac
It is impossible to fully appreciate the work of Thomas Aquinas on the Eucharist if one does not understand the Eucharistic controversies in the Church in the centuries that preceded him. Cardinal de Lubac’s seminal study of the development of the Church’s Eucharistic understanding in the Middle Ages is the single most important work on this topic. De Lubac’s demonstration that, after Berengar, the Church’s need to tie the Eucharist more explicitly to Christ’s natural body severed the relationship between the Eucharist and Christ’s ecclesial body set the stage for the revival of Eucharistic ecclesiology in the 20th century.
3. The Risen Christ and the Eucharistic World, Gustave Martelet
Christ’s Eucharistic presence utterly depends upon the fact that the resurrection has made the incarnation available to (and through) the Church throughout history. The eschatological significance of the Eucharist shines through clearly in this unique book. That Christ is both Alpha and Omega, that he is both the Word through whom God made the universe and the final destination of all creation, means that the resurrection is the beginning of the incorporation of all created reality into his body. I know of no other work that so carefully and convincingly relates the Eucharist, the resurrection, and eschatology. It will change the way you think about all three.
4. Eucharist: Presence of Christ, F.X. Durrwell
In a brief 60 pages, Durrwell offers us a Eucharistic theology that is at once fresh and traditional. Writing shortly after the semi-failed experiments of transsignification and transfinalization, Durrwell produced a lucid work putting Eucharistic theology in its appropriate contexts, paschal and eschatological. In so doing, he gives us a rereading of the doctrine of transubstantiation that insists it be understood not as the transformation of one worldly object into another, but as the elevation of the worldly to the celestial—the in-breaking of the eschaton into history.
5. Eucharist, Robert Barron
This short work is more popular than scholarly. It is a shame that Barron does not include footnotes because this reader, at least, would love to know Barron’s sources. This book’s great strength is its ability to simplify without oversimplifying. Barron pulls together the major themes of Catholic Eucharistic theology in an insightful, biblically-informed synthesis. Eschewing the exclusive emphases of left and right, Barron insists upon the interdependence of the Eucharistic themes of meal and sacrifice, all anchored by a theology of Real Presence delightfully articulated with reference to Scripture, the classical theological tradition, and contemporary theology and philosophy. It is, quite simply, the best popular book on the subject.
Honorable Mentions: Both Herbert McCabe, O.P. and Joseph Ratzinger have written many penetrating things on the Eucharist, but most of these have occurred in occasional writings, not in full-length books devoted especially to the Eucharist. (Ratzinger’s God is Near Us is a collection of occasional writings/speeches all devoted to this topic.) Alexander Schmemann’s work Eucharist: Sacrament of the Kingdom is a brilliant work from an Orthodox perspective.
Have you read any of these authors or works? What struck you about them? What books would you add to my list?
Brett Salkeld is a doctoral student in theology at Regis College in Toronto. He is a father of two (so far) and husband of one.
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At the risk of overwhelming you even more with another “must read”, I would certainly recommend “Torture and Eucharist: Theology, Politics and the Body of Christ” – by William T. Cavanaugh.
Given the global escalating culture of militarism and the growing awareness of a connection with torture and degradation of humanity, our theologians must help us discern and develop a new conscientization of our Christian understanding of the Eucharist and its incarnational implications for world justice and peace.
Thanks Larry. Torture and Eucharist is already on the to-read list, so you didn’t add anything. I may end up with a chapter or sub-chapter on the Eucharist and ethics. Monika Hellwig’s The Eucharist and the Hunger of the World would also figure in such a chapter. There is also a video called “One Border, One Body: Immigration and the Eucharist,” that looks interesting.
I have read Cavanaugh’s article “The World in a Wafer,” and enjoyed it.
He was just in Toronto. Did you go see him? I, unfortunately, was out of town teaching diaconal candidates Eucharist with the Robert Barron book.
Brett, this entire list is very intellectual. What books do you recommend for lay people. If the Eucharist is given to babies as does happen in the East, then our intellect doesn’t necessarily have to grasp all the fine layers of Christ Present.
I was just searching yesterday, in fact, for information on Eucharist and healing. Because for the last few times I have been at Mass, I have received the gift of tears. It has ONLY been my background with Charismatic prayer that has given me a context to understand what has been happening to me, but there is SO little out there to explain the Eucharist in emotional terms. Those who have tried are sources that I do not quite trust.
Ideas? I am not anti-intellectual, but our Church speaks in deep theological language and the average Mass goer is just not there and right now I don’t believe it is my intellect that Jesus is healing.
rcm,
It’s interesting to remember, now and then, that the first generations of Christians didn’t have any theological tomes to read and would no doubt have been mystified by such concepts as transubstantiation, which didn’t come along for over a thousand years after the Last Supper.
I don’t think I can be accused of being anti-intellectual. I just bought a slew of books because — unwisely for my bank account — I read this post on Commonweal:
On the other hand, Catholics received the Eucharist for over a thousand years without the benefit of reading Thomas Aquinas. How many of the great saints had a deep intellectual understanding of theories about the Eucharist?
rcm,
You are perfectly right. The books one tends to read in order to write a doctoral dissertation are not always very accessible. That said, the Barron book is a good start for those interested in the theology of the Eucharist. (The Durrwell is also fairly readable. The other 3 would be very difficult for those not used to academic reading.) I am less familiar with books about spirituality, but there are a couple that come to mind. I’m sure there are others who can add to this area that is not my expertise.
I once encountered a beautiful meditation that I made a mental note of precisely so I could recommend it to Catholic moms, so thanks for the prompt. It is called “Nursing, Eucharist, Psychosis, Metaphor,” and can be found in a little collected volume called From the Pews in the Back. It is very accessible, despite the highly academic title.
I also recently thumbed through Born of the Eucharist: A Spirituality for Priests. There were some very nice short reflections in there and it seemed to represent a wide swatch of Catholicism – not partisan at all. (In fact, I quoted from Archbishop Dolan’s reflection here at VN precisely to highlight it’s non-partisanship.) It is written especially for priests and those considering the priesthood, but I thought that most of the stuff was useful to any interested Catholic.
David,
You are right, of course, that we survived without transubstantiation for over 1000 years. In this regard you might be quite interested in de Lubac’s work that demonstrates what was happening intellectually that lead to transubstantiation. Long story short, Christians had always lived in an intellectual world where symbols participated in the reality they represented, so predicating to symbols a reality beyond the physically apprehensible wasn’t that big a deal. Once this worldview broke down it became inevitable that someone would claim that, since the bread and wine were obviously symbols, they couldn’t “really” be Jesus. Berengar was the man, and Catholic Eucharistic theology scrambled in response. Transubstantiation is a fairly successful, but entirely esoteric, manner of affirming that, through God’s power, symbols can convey reality.
For the record, Luther went through the same problem, though in a much shorter time span. He began by insisting on real presence and rejecting any philosophical explanation, which he (correctly) saw as the manner of the Bible and the early Church. He was later forced into philosophical explanations himself, however, when others among the reformers made essentially the same claim as Berengar. Most would agree that Luther’s attempts at philosophy were far less coherent than Aquinas’. Of course, Aquinas was a philosopher; Luther, not so much.
In any case, the East has always resisted the temptation to philosophize about Eucharistic presence. In this regard you might like Schmemann’s work. A Catholic might occasionally think Schmemann a touch unfair in some of his critiques, but they are helpful and worth responding to. David Fagerberg (“Translating Transubstantiation”) and Matthew Levering (“Transubstantiation” in Sacrifice and Community) have offered useful responses from a Catholic point of view.
Though certainly not as deep as some of the books on your list, I would recommend Fr. Kevin Irwin, Models of the Eucharist. Patterned after Models of the Church by Avery Dulles, his book presents 10 overlapping “models” of the Eucharist: that is, 10 different frames or perspectives for viewing the Eucharist. His major point is that each model is valid but incomplete, and a fuller understanding of the Eucharist requires looking at it from multiple directions.
I second Cavanaugh’s Torture and Eucharist and Hellwig’s The Eucharist and the Hunger of the World. The latter is definitely accessible.
Another accessible book on the sacraments in general is Tad Guzie’s Book of Sacramental Basics.
I’d also add Tissa Balasuriya’s The Eucharist and Human Liberation to your Eucharist and ethics reading, as well as Anamnesis as Dangerous Memory: Political and Liturgical Theology in Dialogue by Bruce T. Morrill. The latter puts the political theology of Metz in dialogue with the liturgical theology of Schmemann.
I’ve heard good things about Models of the Eucharist.
Brett,
Yes I did go to William Cavanaugh’s lecture last month – the 1st Annual MARCELLUS Lecture in Canada. It was held at Romero Centre in Toronto and sponsored by the Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture (ACAT-Canada). A new & growing ecumenical movement.
“TORTURE: A Spiritual Challenge” was a breathtaking and inspiring concise presentation by a dedicated master of the topic. This process engages our Catholic faith tradition into deep reflection on the current social and cultural global crisis resulting from a crass commercial forgetfulness – the antithesis of what it means to be human.
I was particularly impressed by William’s insights into the significance of Anamnesis as a remedial way of counteracting the cultural trance – he called it “unforgetting forgetfulness”.
It was a nourishing experience which enhanced my appreciation of the Eucharist in many ways.
Brett, I am also thrilled to learn that you were teaching diaconal candidates on Eucharist. Were these candidates for the permanent diaconate, or were they candidates in transition to the order of priest?
Thanks Larry. Permanent diaconate. Very encouraging work, teaching those guys.
Thanks for the recommendations David and Michael.
I read one book by Guzie: Jesus and the Eucharist. In my view it had some very strong and very weak points. Not much in between. It’s been a long time, but if memory serves I thought the last two chapters were very perceptive. On the other hand, I thought he simply misunderstood and therefore misrepresented some basic stuff on Eucharistic presence.
rcm et al.,
I have just become aware of Thomas Merton’s The Living Bread. It looks very good, and quite accessible. Anyone read it?
Bread. Ah yes, bread…now that you mention it, the World Day of Prayer International Committee has designated their theme for 2011 – “How many loaves have you?” And the women of Chile have been chosen to write the prayer and reflection for this upcoming year. It focusses on the issue of world hunger.
How often we neglect the very basic and obvious connection with bread in our theorizing and theologizing the most esoteric abstractions around eucharist, forgetting that it is essentially a human gathering to share a meal — breaking bread together in solidarity and in a covenant relationship with God who liberates us from sin and death.
We should note well that the early Christian community understood and celebrated the eucharist originally in light of the miraculous feeding of the multitude. This is well documented in ancient works of art and icons as the cental motif of eucharistic assembly, long before the late medieval fascination with such concepts as transubstantiation etc.
Bread is just so basic and universal for human nourishment. Keeping that bread in mind, how can we ignore the plight of human suffering from famine hunger or malnourishment, while our corporate sector dashes about the planet searching for the latest generation of biofuels to feed our private automobiles, jetliners, oceanliners and internal combustion engines?
To celebrate Eucharist without any sense of the ethical dimension involved, must be considered a form of blasphemy or sacrilege.