Eucharist, Real Presence, and Time Travel

Abstract

The dogma of transubstantiation defined by the Roman Catholic Church generates several philosophical questions. These problems should be addressed from a perspective broader than the one that has been usually adopted in the recent discussion in Analytic Philosophical Theology. What has been taught is that the Eucharist is a sacrament but at the same time a real sacrifice. And the sacrifice of the mass is a “renovation” of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ in the Calvary. It is argued here that the best way to understand these formulations is embracing the thesis of identity, i. e.: the sacrifice of the mass = the sacrifice of the cross. The thesis of identity has substantive metaphysical presuppositions that may have been seen as extravagant by the fathers of the Council of Trent. It is argued here, moreover, that those presuppositions are perfectly coherent.

Keywords

• eucaristía
• presencia real
• viaje en el tiempo
• transubstanciación
• espacio-tiempo.