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To: RnMomof7
Calvin's Eucharistic theology is closer to Orthodox Eucharistic theology than it is to the Eucharistic theology of most Calvinists I've met. Most who call themselves Calvinists are Zwinglians in regard to the Eucharist: the Eucharist is mere symbol, a rememberance and nothing more. It is clear that Calvin believed it is more, though whether his doctrine was some sort of "Real Presence" doctrine or a symbolic doctrine with symbol understood in a Semitic senses where symbols participate in the reality they symbolize rather than the usual Western rationalistic sense in which symbols are mere signifiers is unclear to me.
27 posted on 09/09/2002 7:51:25 AM PDT by The_Reader_David
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To: The_Reader_David; Jean Chauvin; OrthodoxPresbyterian
I am not too sure that is true of all calvinists it might be denomination specific..that is why I asked input for the Orthodox Calvinists..I will try again..( remember alot of the Calvinists here on FR are Baptists..so they carry some Baptist doctrine too...the Orthodox Calvinists baptize babies etc...very different than the reformed Baptists)
28 posted on 09/09/2002 8:03:16 AM PDT by RnMomof7
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To: The_Reader_David
No one responed so I found this. It sounds closer to the EO position than to the Baptists:>)





Protestant view differs. Within Protestant denominations, some believe Jesus is present in the Communion event, but not in the sense that the bread and wine literally are changed.

The Rev. W. Eugene March, a professor at Louisville Presbyterian Seminary, said Presbyterian teaching espouses the view of John Calvin, a 16th-century Reformation leader, called real presence.

"The real presence is an insistence there's really something happening here, that Christ is truly present," he said. "But not in the sense of transubstantiation." March spent 15 years as a representative for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the nation's largest Presbyterian denomination, in talks with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the country's largest Lutheran group, on forging closer ties.

A major sticking point, he said, was differing views of Communion. Presbyterians celebrate Communion on a table, not an altar, because it is not viewed as a sacrificial event, he said. While they do not believe the taking of Communion is essential to salvation, it plays an important role in the faith.






"To participate in this meal is to be drawn nearer to Christ," March said. "It is to self-consciously put oneself in touch with the real presence and to reflect more seriously on who Jesus is, what he has done and what that means for our lives." Despite the official teaching, he said, Presbyterians in the pews likely have varied views about Communion. The same can be said of Lutherans, said Baird Tipson, president of Wittenberg University in Springfield and a scholar of Christian history.

30 posted on 09/09/2002 10:30:49 AM PDT by RnMomof7
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To: The_Reader_David; RnMomof7; the_doc
I am not too sure that is true of all calvinists it might be denomination specific..that is why I asked input for the Orthodox Calvinists..I will try again..( remember alot of the Calvinists here on FR are Baptists..so they carry some Baptist doctrine too...the Orthodox Calvinists baptize babies etc...very different than the reformed Baptists)

Broadly speaking, Calvinist Baptists tend towards Zwingli's view ("Symbolic Remembrance") whereas Calvinist Presbyterians tend towards Calvin's view ("Spiritual Presence").


33 posted on 09/09/2002 6:58:20 PM PDT by OrthodoxPresbyterian
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