Transignification is an idea originating from the attempts of

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

theologians, especially

Edward Schillebeeckx Edward Cornelis Florentius Alfonsus Schillebeeckx (November 12, 1914–December 23, 2009) was a Belgian Catholic theologian born in Antwerp. He taught at the Catholic University in Nijmegen. He was a member of the Dominican Order. His books on ...

, to better understand the mystery of the

real presence of Christ in the Eucharist The real presence of Christ in the Eucharist is the Christian doctrine that Jesus Christ is present in the Eucharist, not merely symbolically or metaphorically, but in a true, real and substantial way. There are a number of Christian denomina ...

in light of a new philosophy of the nature of reality that is more in line with contemporary physics.

Description

Transignification suggests that although Christ's body and blood are not physically present in the Eucharist, they are really and objectively so, as the elements take on, at the consecration, the real significance of Christ's body and blood which thus become sacramentally present. As Joseph Martos articulates, "The basic philosophical idea behind it was that significance or meaning is a constitutive element of reality as it is known to human beings, and this is especially true of human realities like attitudes and relationships. Such human realities . . . are known through the meaning those actions have for people". Thus, "the reality of the bread and wine is changed during the mass not in any physical way but in a way which is nonetheless real, for as soon as they signify the body and blood of Christ they become sacramental, embodying and revealing Christ's presence in a way which is experienceably real. In other words, when the meaning of the elements changes, their reality changes for those who have faith in Christ and accept the new meaning that he gave them, whereas for those without faith and who are unaware of their divinely given meaning, they appear to remain bread and wine."

Relation to other Eucharist theories

It is thus contrasted not only to belief in a physical or chemical change in the elements, but also to the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church that there is a change only of the underlying reality, but not of anything that concerns physics or chemistry (see

transubstantiation Transubstantiation (Latin: ''transubstantiatio''; Greek: μετουσίωσις ''metousiosis'') is, according to the teaching of the Catholic Church, "the change of the whole substance of bread into the substance of the Body of Christ and of th ...

). The theory has been rejected by the

Magisterium The magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church is the church's authority or office to give authentic interpretation of the Word of God, "whether in its written form or in the form of Tradition." According to the 1992 Catechism of the Catholic Chur ...

of the Roman Catholic Church, in particular in

Pope Paul VI Pope Paul VI ( la, Paulus VI; it, Paolo VI; born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini, ; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City, Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 to his ...

's 1965 encyclical '' Mysterium fidei'': Pope Paul VI's encyclical mentioned the term 'transignification' in only that sentence and did not cite Schillebeeckx's name. However, it is considered to be similar to the Anglican position set forth by

Thomas Cranmer Thomas Cranmer (2 July 1489 – 21 March 1556) was a leader of the English Reformation and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and, for a short time, Mary I. He helped build the case for the annulment of Henry' ...

in the

Thirty-Nine Articles The Thirty-nine Articles of Religion (commonly abbreviated as the Thirty-nine Articles or the XXXIX Articles) are the historically defining statements of doctrines and practices of the Church of England with respect to the controversies of the ...

(Number 28). However, some theorists of transsignification, such as Edward Schillebeeckx, interpret the concept as being a complement, not replacement, to the doctrine of transubstantiation. For Schillebeeckx, the question of the transubstantiation requires a grounding in human perception: perception, he says, exists in a differentiated unity, consisting of both an openness to receiving true reality (the mystery that is God's milieu) through phenomena, and a human giving of meaning to that reality. Consequently, he says, the phenomenal is that "not only the sensory, but also everything that is expressed of the reality itself or concretely appears to us, which is, then, inadequate to what is expressed (the reality as a mystery)." In other words, an objective, mysterious reality exists beyond man and is offered through the stuff of reality, but because all human existence is situated in the limitedness of human senses, it is constituted in human perception by relative meanings--the meanings through which human beings interpret reality--even as this inherent meaning persists. Following from this notion, he concludes that Eucharist ''is'' objectively the real presence of Christ, appearing to man as sacramental nourishment, but the "re-creative activity of the Holy Spirit" causes the phenomenal forms of bread and wine to refer to a different reality--and, as a consequence, this change in signification prompts a new human ''experience'' of the Eucharist. In other words, while Christ is objectively present in the Eucharist, the human experience of the Eucharist occurs because of a miraculous alteration in meaning.Schillebeeckx, Edward. ''The Eucharist.'' Burns & Oates, 2005. 150-151. This theological understanding of Eucharist reflects modern understanding and moves beyond the strictures of Thomism which does not work well with modern understanding of the world.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Eucharist in Postmodernity
with mention of

Ferdinand de Saussure Ferdinand de Saussure (; ; 26 November 1857 – 22 February 1913) was a Swiss linguist, semiotician and philosopher. His ideas laid a foundation for many significant developments in both linguistics and semiotics in the 20th century. He is widel ...

https://web.archive.org/web/20110711040044/http://www.change.freeuk.com/learning/relthink/eucharistpm.html Eucharist in the Catholic Church

Description

Relation to other Eucharist theories

See also

References

External links