Celebration

About the Book

Celebration: Eucharistic Faith and Practice surveys the Bible’s witnesses to God’s interactions with his people. It sketches the contours of the theological disagreements that have beset the Church in light of attempts to incorporate Aristotelian philosophy into its sacramental theology. Author Bruce Upham presents a way past the conflict. He proposes that Christians turn their attention to Jesus Christ’s promises to be present bodily in the Eucharist and to his calling to his followers to become his body—his arms and legs—through the celebration of the Eucharist for the sake of the Holy Spirit’s mission. Working from a variety of sources, Celebration draws upon highlights of the scriptural testimony to the presence and work of God, references to the Church’s history of theology, and insights from the work of philosophers. It weaves together these strands to create a compact presentation of a theologically defensible understanding of the real presence, without rearguing the issues that cluster around Aristotle’s philosophy of being. Whether you have found yourself living according to the Catholic perspective or the Protestant view of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, Celebration extends the hope of discovering a way to transcend past conflicts and to return, instead, to the joy of celebrating Christ’s eucharistic gift in both faith and practice.

About the Author

Bruce Upham, after earning his PhD from the University of Queensland, has taught theology and church history to ministerial students for twenty-eight years. He finds that his academic focus on the Church’s sacramental life and regular celebration of the Eucharist in churches and colleges work together to enrich his reflections.