Comments on: You Don’t Get H1N1 By Sleeping In

By: kleiner

kleiner — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 03:57:51 +0000

I don’t know if Stan’s post is meant to be a serious question or not. Assuming it is:
“Transubstantiation” as a doctrine is a way of trying to explain the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The claim that the bread and wine have become the body and blood of Christ looks, at the very least in terms of the appearance of things, to be absurd since it still looks and tastes like bread and wine. Transubstantiation is a way of trying to use some philosophical language to sort out what is going on .
Transubstantiation suggests that the “substance” (from the greek ‘ousia’ which can also be rendered ‘being’) changes while the empirical appearance remains the same. It is not actually an official endorsement of Aristotelian metaphysics, though the Aristotelian categories of “substance” and “accident” are useful for explaining what is going on in the Eucharist.
For Aristotle, substances are entities that have a degree of independent being. Accidents, on the other hand, refer to the being of attributes that are entirely dependent. Colors are good examples of accidental properties. Contra Plato, Aristotle denies that there is some separate Platonic Form of “Blue-ness”, for instance. Rather, blue is always the color OF some other object. Once the wall is destroyed, its “whiteness” is destroyed along with it. Whiteness by itself does not exist independently, “out there”.
Now in the ordinary course of events, when there is a substantial change, the accidents also change. When I eat broccoli, I don’t become “a little bit broccoli”, rather that substance is destroyed. And when it is destroyed, so are all of its accidents (even if not immediately, they go away eventually). The nourishment I get from the broccoli does not make me a “little green”.
The Eucharist is a miracle, so it is not an event that follows the ordinary course of things. I’ll wait for the SHAFTers to stop guffawing. … … In the case of the Eucharist, the “substance” is changed from bread to the real presence (the “real being”) of Christ’s body, and the wine is substantially changed into the blood of Christ. But it still appears like bread and wine – looks, tastes, etc like bread and wine. The accidental properties remain even though a substantial change has taken place. This does not ever happen other than in the Eucharistic miracle.
Now this was a hopelessly brief account of this, but this gives you an idea of what a Catholic means when he says “Transubstantiation is the changing of the substance not its accidents.” The wikipedia article on this (scroll down in particular to the ‘theology of transubstantiation’) is not bad, and unpacks things a bit more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transubstantiation

By: Mike L.

Mike L. — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 22:07:45 +0000

Oh wow, didn’t notice your comment, Enkidu. The elementary school friend was a practicing Muslim. He was describing a practice Muslims do to clean themselves before certain prayers. It sounded more complex than gargling, if I remember correctly it involves swallowing water in a way such that it comes out through your nose. Then again, these are 10 year old memories and kids that young aren’t that great at communicating.

By: Stan

Stan — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:41:59 +0000

Here’s my question about Catholic theology relating to the Eucharist: “Transubstantiation is the changing of the substance not its accidents.” WTF?

By: kleiner

kleiner — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 03:19:12 +0000

An update: Bishop Wester (the bishop of the Utah diocese) has just announced some temporary changes to some Catholic traditions (apparently after consultation with the dept of health and the US conference of Catholic Bishops). Most remarkably, throughout flu season the Holy Communion will only include the Body of Christ, not the Blood (which is dispenses in a shared cup). And parishioners will be asked to avoid holding or shaking hands (during the exchange of peace or the Lords Prayer). This changes are set to begin next week at our local parish (St Thomas Aquinas main parish and the student St Jerome’s chapel at the Newman Center just off campus).
(For those interested in the nuances of Catholic theology: it is taught that since Christ is risen, the body and blood of Christ cannot really be separated, so anyone who receives one (bread or wine / body or blood) in fact receives the whole Christ. So by offering only the body and not the blood, the grace of the sacrament is not effected).

By: Enkidu

Enkidu — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 02:54:27 +0000

Hey, Mike! Which hell do you mean? Christian of Muslim?

By: Mike Linford

Mike Linford — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 18:10:46 +0000

In elementary school this one kid explained that there’s this thing they do to wash out their noses, too.

By: James

James — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 17:37:10 +0000

I was unaware Muslims gargled before prayer.

By: Mike Linford

Mike Linford — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:35:32 +0000

I dunno, Kimi, I’d rather get the swine flu than BURN IN HELL FOR ALL ETERNITY. That’s just me, though.