Eucharistic Origins was published a number of years ago. This revised edition continues to incorporate the work of the latest liturgical scholars in establishing that the earliest Christian celebrations arose out of varied forms of their ritual meals, and not out of the Last Supper. The custom of centering Christian practice in ritual meals seems to have lasted for about one hundred and fifty years before it began to be replaced by morning meetings at which the sacrament was distributed, and subsequently by a complete celebration of the Eucharist. It is here, in the third and fourth centuries, and not in the distant Jewish past, that the forms of the classical eucharistic prayers emerged and developed. The most important of these are presented in full, and their theology discussed.

The consensus view has long been that the Eucharist as practiced in the early Church was modeled primarily on the Last Supper. The meal then disappeared from the rite, and the Eucharist was appended to a morning service of the word inherited from the Jewish synagogue. All of this was supposedly standardized at a very early date, and has remained essentially the same ever since. In this groundbreaking book, Paul Bradshaw explores the basis on which this thesis is built, exposes its weaknesses, and suggests an alternative way of looking at the evidence that leads to a very different vision of eucharistic origins. He carefully examines the principal sources from the first few centuries and finds that although the eucharistic sayings of Jesus did play an important role in shaping the beliefs of early Christians, there was surprising diversity in their practice. Communities differed in the order of the ritual, in the elements used, and in the meanings assigned to it. Bradshaw shows that the Eucharist continued to be associated with an evening meal much longer than previously thought. Likewise, he argues that only gradually did the understanding of the bread and wine as the body and blood of Christ come to predominate. Tracing what can be known--and what cannot--about the celebration of the Eucharist during this formative period of Christianity, Bradshaw sheds important new light on the central rite of the Christian faith.

Theological reflection upon the Eucharist is dominated by two paradigms: One approach interprets the Eucharist almost exclusively in theological terms, shaped by Scholasticism and the Reformation. Most discussions about the nature of the Eucharist, Eucharistic presence or the role of the priest follow these categories, even if they come in modern disguise. The other reads the Eucharist as an event which can be explored empirically. O'Loughlin develops a new understanding of the Eucharist. This can be done by looking afresh at the historical evidence and bringing it in dialogue with modern theology. In the past decades, historical research and new discoveries have changed our view of the origins and the development of the Eucharist. By bringing history into a fruitful dialogue with sacramental and liturgical theology, he shows not only ways how theology and practice can be brought closer together again, but also how current ecumenical divisions can be overcome. His book makes an important contribution to eucharistic theology, both for individual church traditions as well as for ecumenical dialogues.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

The Eucharist originated at the Last Supper of Jesus with his disciples. It is based on the prayer of thanksgiving that Jesus pronounced over the bread and wine at that meal. “Eucharist” means “thanksgiving”, “praise”, and “blessing”. The Church celebrates the Eucharist as a memorial of the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, which is more than a remembrance of the Last Supper of Jesus with his disciples. In the Eucharist the sacrifice of our redemption becomes present sacramentally. In the past, dogmatic theology has treated the meaning of the Eucharist while disregarding the form of its liturgical celebration, whereas liturgical studies have been content with only the latter. Yet the two cannot be separated, any more than liturgy and dogma or pastoral practice and doctrine can be understood without the other. The Church’s liturgy is not something external to Christian revelation, but rather, as Joseph Ratzinger said, “revelation accepted in faith and prayer”. In this work Helmut Hoping combines the approaches of dogmatic theology and liturgy while examining the Eucharist from a historical and systematic perspective. This new English translation of the second German edition of this major work, revised and expanded, includes a comparative analysis of the Second Eucharistic Prayer and a chapter on the theology of the words of institution.

Contrary to some contemporary scholarship, John Koenig argues that there was an intention "Last Supper" at which Jesus, with a messianic consciousness, intended to enlist his followers more fully in his redemptive mission.>

In The Eucharistic Faith, the first of a significant new systematic theology of the Eucharist, Ralph N. McMichael weaves liturgy and theology together to understand the ways in which theology and Christian faith are, at heart, about the receiving of the gift of Jesus’ life in Communion.