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No single question divides the Western churches more sharply than this one, and the atlas's own record calls the divisions precise rather than vague, fixed since Luther and Zwingli failed to agree at Marburg in 1529 over the four words "this is my body." Seven bodies hold a variant, differently-accounted, stance toward the Real Presence in the Eucharist in this atlas: Anglicanism, Calvinism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Lutheranism, Oriental Orthodoxy, Presbyterianism and Roman Catholicism.

One Substance Changed, and Two Accounts of a Real Presence Without It

Roman Catholicism holds transubstantiation as dogma: the substance of the bread and wine becomes the body and blood, the appearances remaining, defined at the Fourth Lateran Council and again at Trent. Lutheranism holds instead a sacramental union: the body and blood are truly present in, with and under the bread and wine, which remain what they are, explicitly rejecting the Roman account of the mode of that presence. Calvinism and Presbyterianism hold a third account again, a spiritual real presence truly received by faith, with Christ's body remaining in heaven and not locally in the elements, confessed in the Westminster standards; the atlas notes plainly that this is where Lutherans and Reformed have never met.

Mystery Declined to Define, and a Middle Left Deliberately Open

Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy hold the same position as each other in this atlas's record: the change as mystery, affirmed as sacramental reality without the scholastic vocabulary of transubstantiation the Latin definition uses. Anglicanism holds the most distinctive of the seven: a real presence with the mode left deliberately undefined, which the atlas calls the deliberate settlement of the Articles of Religion, and the reason the Anglican formularies can still be read in more than one direction today.

Where To Read More

• The Real Presence in the EucharistChurch, Sacraments and AuthorityThe doctrine itself, seven distinct bodies holding a distinct account of it
• Roman CatholicismChristianityTransubstantiation as dogma, defined at Lateran IV and Trent
• LutheranismChristianitySacramental union: truly present in, with and under the elements
• Calvinism (Reformed)ChristianityA spiritual real presence received by faith, Christ's body remaining in heaven
• PresbyterianismChristianityHolds the same spiritual-presence account as Calvinism, per the Westminster standards
• Eastern OrthodoxyChristianityThe change as mystery, declining the scholastic categories
• Oriental OrthodoxyChristianityHolds the same change-as-mystery account as Eastern Orthodoxy
• AnglicanismChristianityA real presence with the mode left deliberately undefined