What are “sacraments” and especially “transubstantiation”?
In the classical (Roman Catholic) formulation of the Lord’s Supper, when the priest blesses the bread or wafer, the “essence” of the substance is believed to change into the body of Christ (“transubstantiation”), while the incidental qualities (“accidents” in Aristotleian terms) remain those of bread/wafer. This sort of language, taken literally, has sometimes encouraged the accusation that Christians engage in cannibalism, even in the very early period with which this course deals. Some Important People around the latter part of the 2nd century By the end of the 2nd century we begin to get relatively more information on various individual Christian authors and their ideas. The works of these authors survived largely because they were all seen as part of the FILTERing process that led to classical Christianity. The main “heresiologists” (opponents of “heresy”) among them were Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Hippolytus (see also Justin, below). Irenaeus: originally from Asia minor; reported o
