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] _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l