In the Reformed tradition, the Lord’s Supper is a sacrament that draws on a rich and deep tradition in its theology and practice. In this new volume in the Columbia Series in Reformed Theology, John Riggs provides a comprehensive overview of the most important Reformed theologians and confessions on the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. Riggs identifies the theology of true mystical union with Christ in the Supper as both a theological legacy the Reformed tradition inherited and a theological achievement that it refined. Ideal for studies in Reformed and liturgical theology, this is an important resource for investigating the eucharistic theology of the Reformed tradition.
“In this thoroughly researched and carefully argued study, Riggs identifies and traces the careers of two distinct trajectories in the eucharistic theology of the Latin West, both of which affirm a ‘real presence’ of Christ in the Supper albeit in divergent ways (metabolic and nonmetabolic, represented by Ambrose and Augustine respectively). Looking anew at the Reformation-era debates through this lens, he is able to bring classic figures and texts into clearer focus as well as to expose certain standard interpretations of Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, and Bullinger as untenable. Helpfully carrying his discussion forward into the modern period, Riggs lets such prominent Reformed theologians as Schleiermacher, Nevin, Hodge, and Barth weigh in on these debates. Presiding magisterially across all the various subdisciplines of the theological curriculum as few today can, Riggs applies the mind of a systematic theologian to a dense question of historical theology that is of enduring importan ce for both practical theology and ecumenical relations.”
— Paul E. Capetz, Associate Dean and Professor of Historical Theology, United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities