The Eucharist: Origins and Contemporary Understandings by Thomas O’Loughlin (review)

In this book, Thomas O’Loughlin endeavors to develop a constructive, ecumenical, and incarnational theology of the Eucharist defined by its act of thanksgiving to the Father and the human practice of eating. O’Loughlin contends that these two elements have become marginalized in contemporary liturgical practice in favor of Christocentric understandings of Eucharistic presence and theologies of sacrifice. Drawing upon contemporary anthropology and historical sources, he argues that an adequate understanding of Christian worship must take into account the early Christian practice of worship and the basic identity of the human person as homo cenarius.

The book is divided into seven chapters. After a first chapter concerned with methodology, O’Loughlin argues in the second chapter that the Eucharist is primarily an act of thanksgiving to the Father rather than an encounter with Christ. Drawing upon early Christian texts, he contends that the first Christians understood themselves to be participating in Christ’s blessing the Father through their communal meals rather than effecting the presence of Christ in their midst. In the third chapter, O’Loughlin begins his anthropological argument. He posits that human eating differs from that of other creatures because human eating is marked by reason, technical skill, and sociality. He argues that this unique and essential aspect of human nature ought to be incorporated into their worship. O’Loughlin expands this claim in the fourth chapter, suggesting that all meals exist on a continuum from the most hastily eaten snack to the Eucharistic ritual meal. Consequently, he critiques contemporary Christianity’s marginalization of the meal expressed in the reduction of the bread and wine to mere tokens and emphasis on the discontinuity between natural food and the “bread of angels.” Rather than emphasizing a binary division between “sacred” and “profane,” O’Loughlin highlights the continuity among the growth of foodstuffs, their preparation and cooking, their being shared at table, and their becoming occasions of thanksgiving to God.

In the fifth chapter, O’Loughlin turns to an historical investigation. He examines a number of early Christian texts in order to explore their own interpretations of the Eucharistic rituals they performed. He argues that the community meal and the Eucharist were intimately connected and seen as a celebration of unity, a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the Father, and a supper of reconciliation. The practices of early Christian communities combined with their memories of the meals of Jesus—including, but by no means limited to, the Last Supper—guide their liturgical praxis and subsequently form their self-understanding. In the sixth chapter, O’Loughlin investigates whether it is possible to establish the form of the meal that early communities used and believed to be in continuity with the practice of Jesus. He argues that although there is no uniform practice, there are common strands. All early Eucharistic rituals contain a blessing of the Father within the context of a meal, the sharing of a single loaf and a common cup, and a remembrance of Jesus. Moreover, early Christian worship is focused mainly on the unity of the assembly which partakes of one loaf and one cup rather than on the substance of the loaf and contents of the cup. Finally, in the seventh chapter, O’Loughlin argues that a eucharistic theology grounded in an understanding of the human person as homo cenarius entails a reimagination of current eucharistic practices in order to refocus on offering thanksgiving to the Father, emphasize the role of the assembly, and recover and reinvigorate the place of the meal within the eucharistic celebration.

Even as there is much to appreciate in O’Loughlin’s work, there are also points that call for further examination and critique. His distaste for theologies of Eucharistic presence will sit uneasily with many Catholics. Furthermore, despite the variety of scriptural and other early Christian ancient texts to which he appeals, he makes no mention of John 6, which plays a pivotal role in Catholic Eucharistic theology. O’Loughlin...