There is a lot that goes into communion that we’ll be diving into during the next few months. But for now, here are the main views on communion:

1. Transubstantiation: This view is mostly held by the Roman Catholic Church as described in the Council of Trent (1545-63). Transubstantiation believes that when the Priest consecrates the bread and wine they actually change their substance into the body and blood of Jesus in essence. Though there tend to be some variations on this among some Catholics, there still seems to be a divine presence/essence being received in the sacrament. All who partake in the Eucharist sacramentally receive the real presence (body and blood) of Christ into themselves. Simply: when you bless the elements and consume them you’re “literally taking the physical body and blood of Christ.”1

2. Orthodox: This one is easy. It’s all just a mystery! Okay, there’s more to it than that – kind of. The bread and the wine are the body and blood of Jesus upon receiving it, however, no one really knows when or how it happens. Since the bread and the wine retain their nature, it’s difficult to explain how it becomes the body and blood of Jesus — but it does. So it remains a mystery according to the Orthodox view.2

3. Consubstantiation: This view is mostly held by Lutherans and was held by Martin Luther himself. If you don’t know, Luther’s goal in life was to correct the errors of the Catholic Church. In doing so, he claimed that while the bread and wine don’t physically change, Jesus is still spiritually present “in, with, and under” the elements.3 Simply: the elements don’t change but Jesus is still present in, with, and under the elements when we consume them.

4. The Reformed View: This view was held by John Calvin of The Reformation and contends that “Christ is present influentially. The sun remains in the heavens, yet its warmth and light are present on earth.”4 Louis Berkhoff asserted that the Lord’s Supper acts as a seal and that communion “seals the love of Christ to believers, giving them the assurance that all the promises of the covenant and riches of the gospel are theirs.”5 Simply: Jesus is present spiritually but not physically.

 5. Memorial or Zwinglian View: This holds that Communion is simply a remembrance and a memorial of what Jesus did for us. Championed by Ulrich Zwingli, there are many Christians who hold to this view but tends to be adopted mostly by Baptists. This view is less about Jesus being present physically or spiritually and more about the remembrance of Jesus’ death and his atonement for us. Simply: It’s a way to remember the Cross but no real change occurs in the elements and Jesus is not present in any way.

1.  Millard J. Erickson; Introducing Christian Doctrine, 364.
2. https://www.oca.org/orthodoxy/the-orthodox-faith/worship/the-sacraments/holy-eucharist
3. Martin Luther, The Babylonian Captivity of the Church, in Three Treatises; 140
4. John Calvin, Institutes, book 4, ch. 17, sec. 12.
5. Louis Berkhoff, Systematic Theology, 651.
6. Erickson, 365.