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Document Details :

Title: Translating Transubstantiation
Subtitle: The Grammatical Thomists and the Aristotelian Categories in Aquinas' Eucharistic Theology
Author(s): NORMAN, Jack
Journal: Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses
Volume: 99    Issue: 1   Date: 2023   
Pages: 57-77
DOI: 10.2143/ETL.99.1.3291437

Abstract :
This article details interpretations of Aquinas’ eucharistic theology by Herbert McCabe, Denys Turner, and Brian Davies. It examines the way in which they re-present transubstantiation as transignification (McCabe), minimise the term 'transubstantiation' (Turner), or downplay the role of Aristotelian metaphysics (Davies). I argue that such readings maintain the eucharistic presence of Christ but cannot articulate the ways Christ is absent. Because transubstantiation involves only a substantial change, it denies any accidental change. This denial is the real explanatory power of the Aristotelian metaphysics in understanding transubstantiation.

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