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Pusey and Transubstantiation: An Exploration of His Thinking and Ecumenical Implications
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2024
Abstract
This article seeks to explore the thinking of Edward Bouverie Pusey on the doctrine of transubstantiation. It begins by looking at the conflicted way Pusey is considered and goes on to examine Pusey's writings on transubstantiation. The article points out that Pusey's early writing on transubstantiation wrongly believed that the doctrine implied a carnal view of Christ's presence in the Eucharist, but that in his mature thinking this caricature was abandoned and he came to understand that transubstantiation is a form of moderate realism. Some detailed examination of Pusey's mature thinking is undertaken, including a very important set of correspondence between Edward Pusey and John Newman in 1867 which addressed the doctrine of transubstantiation. Pusey's thinking reveals that he is prepared to accept the word transubstantiation as long as it does not imply a change in the substance of the bread and wine of the Eucharist. The article concludes with discussion on the term transubstantiation itself and controversially cites evidence from both Anglican and Roman Catholic sources which suggest that the dependence on a particular scholastic philosophical analysis which attempts to explain the ‘how’ of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist may be less useful than an approach of ‘what’. Pusey's mature thinking on transubstantiation is seen as useful for ecumenical dialogue between the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches.
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References
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31 Pusey, Letter to Jelf, p. 58.
32 Pusey, The Holy Eucharist: A Comfort to the Penitent, p. iii.
33 Pusey, The Holy Eucharist: A Comfort to the Penitent, p. v.
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39 Pusey, An Eirenicon, p. 24.
40 Pusey, An Eirenicon, p. 25.
41 This correspondence is found in the fourth volume of Liddon's Life of Pusey. See Liddon, Henry, (eds. Johnston, J.O. and Wilson, Robert) Life of Edward Bouverie Pusey: Doctor of Divinity, Canon of Christ Church, Regius Professor of Hebrew in the University of Oxford, 4 Volumes (London: Longmans, Green, and Co, 1893, 1893, 1894 PubMed and 1897Google Scholar).
42 Pusey to Newman, 4 March, 1867, in Liddon, Life of Pusey, IV, p. 166.
43 Liddon, Life of Pusey, IV, p. 166.
44 Monsignor Dupanloop (1802-1878) had discussions with Pusey on the question of reunion. These discussions included matters of eucharistic theology.
45 Pusey to Newman, 9 August, 1867, in Liddon, Life of Pusey, IV, p. 166.
46 Pusey to Newman, 9 August, 1867, in Liddon, Life of Pusey, IV, p. 167.
47 Pusey to Newman, 9 August, 1867, in Liddon, Life of Pusey, IV, p. 167.
48 The ARCIC document of 1979 entitled Elucidation makes the statement that ‘before the eucharistic prayer, to the question: “What is that?”, the believer answers: “It is bread.” After the eucharistic prayer, to the same question he answers: “It is truly thebody of Christ, the Bread of Life”’. See Anglican–Roman Catholic International Commission, The Final Report, (London: Catholic Truth Society and Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge, 1982), p. 21
49 Pusey to Newman, 9 August, 1867, in Liddon, Life of Pusey, IV, p. 167.
50 Pusey to Newman, 9 August, 1867, in Liddon, Life of Pusey, IV, p. 167.
51 he ARCIC document entitled Eucharistic Doctrine of 1971 states that ‘the word transubstantiation is commonly used in the Roman Catholic Church to indicate that God acting in the eucharist effects a change in the inner reality of the elements. The term should be seen as affirming the fact of Christ's presence and of the mysterious and radical change which takes places. In contemporary Roman Catholic theology it is not understood as explaining how the change takes place’. See Anglican–Roman Catholic International Commission, The Final Report, p. 14, footnote 2. It needs to be noted that not all Roman Catholics or Anglicans on the Commission agreed with this statement. For a fuller discussion see Douglas, Brian, ‘Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) and the Eucharist: Review and Prospects’, Journal of Religious History, 36 (2012), pp. 351-367CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
52 Pusey to Newman, 9 August, 1867, in Liddon, Life of Pusey, IV, p. 167.
53 Pusey to Newman, 9 August, 1867, in Liddon, Life of Pusey, IV, p. 168
54 Again, Pusey's analysis is remarkably similar to some modern reflections on the word ‘transubstantiation’. See Pickstock, After Writing, p. 260, who argues for the rediscovery of premodern themes, such as transubstantiation, where that term is interpreted as a sacramental (that is, moderate) realism. Indeed Pickstock, like Pusey, argues against the destruction of the substantiality of the bread in the Eucharist but rather that it is ‘constituted by being taken up into God, who is more truly “substance”’. This she expresses using the moderate realist concept of ‘non-identical realism’, where although the sign, the bread for example, conveyed the signified, that is, the body and blood of Christ, no recognizable body (that is, identical or immoderate realism) appears in the bread. The sign therefore in Pickstock's analysis, and Pusey's, is not left behind (see Pickstock, After Writing, pp. 260-262).
55 Newman to Pusey, 12 August, 1867, in Liddon, Life of Pusey, IV, p. 168.
56 Newman to Pusey, 12 August, 1867, in Liddon, Life of Pusey, IV, p. 168.
57 Newman to Pusey, 12 August, 1867, in Liddon, Life of Pusey, IV, p. 168.
58 Newman to Pusey, 12 August, 1867, in Liddon, Life of Pusey, IV, p. 168.
59 Newman to Pusey, 12 August, 1867, in Liddon, Life of Pusey, IV, p. 168.
60 Newman to Pusey, 12 August, 1867, in Liddon, Life of Pusey, IV, p. 168.
61 That is, where the body and blood of Christ is there also is his soul such that where the material substance is, the spiritual is also.
62 Newman to Pusey, 12 August, 1867, in Liddon, Life of Pusey, IV, p. 168.
64 Newman to Pusey, 12 August, 1867, in Liddon, Life of Pusey, IV, p. 169.
65 Newman to Pusey, 12 August, 1867, in Liddon, Life of Pusey, IV, p. 169.
66 Pusey to Newman, 8 November, 1867, in Liddon, Life of Pusey, IV, p. 169.
67 Pusey to Newman, 8 November, 1867, in Liddon, Life of Pusey, IV, p. 169.
68 Pusey to Newman, 8 November, 1867, in Liddon, Life of Pusey, IV, p. 170.
69 Pusey to Newman, 8 November, 1867, in Liddon, Life of Pusey, IV, p. 170.
70 Newman to Pusey, 14 November, 1867, in Liddon, Life of Pusey, IV, pp. 170-171.
71 Newman to Pusey, 14 November, 1867, in Liddon, Life of Pusey, IV, p. 171.
72 Newman to Pusey, 14 November, 1867, in Liddon, Life of Pusey, IV, p. 171.
73 Pusey to Newman, 15 November, 1867, in Liddon, Life of Pusey, IV, pp. 171-172.
74 Pusey to Newman, 15 November, 1867, in Liddon, Life of Pusey, IV, p. 171.
75 Newman to Pusey, 4 August, 1867, in Liddon, Life of Pusey, Volume IV, p. 172.
76 Article XXVIII in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer says in part: ‘Transubstantiation (or the change of the substance of the Bread and Wine) in the Supper of the Lord, cannot be proved by holy Writ; but is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture, overthroweth the nature of a Sacrament, and hath given occasion to many superstitions’.
77 Article XXVIII goes on to say that: ‘The Body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten, in the Supper, only after a heavenly and spiritual manner’.
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