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Developing a Calvinist Sacramental Theology
Laura Smit
Calvin College

Abstract

In my work defending an Augustinian theology of beauty, I often find more support from Roman Catholic theologians than from my fellow Calvinists. In much contemporary Catholic theology, particularly in theological aesthetics, the doctrine of transubstantiation carries a lot of weight, serving as the basis of a sacramental understanding of reality within which created beauty is valued as a symbol of God's own Beauty. Yet it is my conviction that a Calvinist understanding of the real presence of Christ in the supper is at least as conducive to such a sacramental and symbolic metaphysics, and perhaps more so. My effort in this paper is therefore to go where many of my Roman Catholic brothers and sisters have gone, but by a Calvinist route. I briefly set out Calvin's understanding of the real presence in the Lord's Supper, then attempt to draw out a sacramental and symbolic metaphysic that is still genuinely Calvinist. I realize that the conclusions I reach are not all Calvin's own conclusions, but I believe that they are coherent conclusions for someone who embraces a Calvinist/Reformed understanding of real presence.

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