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In The Baptized Body, Peter Leithart cites the important work of Henri de Lubac on the Eucharist. I am glad that Leithart has done this because like most authors Leithart reads, I would not be able to read them without his assistance.
De Lubac notes that medievals, drawing on patristic traditions, developed a triple body of Christ theory. There was the personal body of Christ (now resurrected and ascended), the Eucharistic body, and the corporate body of the church (the community that shares in the Eucharistic body). For medievals, all three bodies were linked together.
Early medieval theologians saw a close association with the Eucharistic body and the corporate body. Energies were spent developing this connection. “For these theologians, it was axiomatic that ‘the Eucharist makes the church.’ Participation in the one loaf of the Eucharistic body forms the one corporate body of the church (1 Cor. 10:16-17).”
It was not until the high middle ages that the way of understanding the triple body moved from a close link with the Eucharistic body and the corporate body to a close link with the Eucharistic body and the personal body of Christ. It was only then that medieval theologians started to speculate on how the Eucharistic body could be turned into the personal body of Christ. No wonder masses started to operate without the participation of the corporate body. They didn’t need to anymore.
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