http://www.carm.org/dictionary/dic_c-d.htm#Consubstatiation
* transubstantiation: "The theory accepted by Catholicism, that in
the Lord's Supper, the elements are transformed into the actual
body and blood of Jesus. However, there is no perceptible or
measurable change in the elements. The transformation occurs
during the Mass at the elevation of the elements by the priest."
Acceptance of transubstantiation was one of the great civilizing
actions of the Catholic Church. It replaced actual cannibalism with
ritual cannibalism. However, the Church did not go so far as to claim
it was a purely metaphorical act.
Instead, by choosing transubstantiation over the alternatives, the
organizers of the Catholic Church told worshipers:
We do real cannibalism here. This is not fake or symbolic. To
you, these elements may look like bread and wine, but by our
powerful ability, in strict accordance with Aristotelian physics,
we convert this bread and wine into human flesh and blood. Yes!
You eat and drink human flesh and human blood. Moreover, you eat
and drink the flesh and blood of your Boss!
As a practical matter, it is much more visceral to say `I am eating my
boss's heart out' than to say `I am eating some bread in order to
remember the value of my boss's heart.'
Of course, there were those who said that Aristotle was wrong, but the
persuasive mechanisms of science had not been invented at the time
these arguments were being settled in the Catholic Church. Moreover,
at the time, it was clear to any man or woman of good intentions that
it is better for the more aggressive young men in town to enjoy some
bread and wine rather than for them to attack and kidnap someone from
the neighboring village, and murder him or her, which is what actual
cannibalism requires.
The latter action leads to clan feuds. Incidentally, another of the
great civilizing actions of the Catholic Church, during its first 1.5
millenia, was to reduce the influence of clans (and within-clan
marriage) in Western Europe.
As far as I can see, a great `what-if' science fiction question is
whether the Catholic Church would have been as successful an
organization in Western Europe as it was durings its first millenium
or so if it had said that Mass and such were metaphorical, not real.
--
Robert J. Chassell Rattlesnake Enterprises
http://www.rattlesnake.com GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8
http://www.teak.cc [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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