The Lord’s Supper Among Radical Protestants (1525–1900)

A cluster of believers' church movements offered an alternative view of Protestant approaches to the Lord's Supper. Although most of them espoused a nonsacramental, memorialist understanding of Christ's presence (more precisely, absence) in the bread and wine, they nonetheless developed intense forms of Communion piety. Much of their practice was inspired by an attempt to return to primitive Christian practice, which they were convinced had been memorialistic rather than sacramental. Different approaches to the Lord's Table often reflect different understandings as to where and how Christ is present in its celebration. For medieval Catholicism, Christ's body and blood were directly present in the bread and wine. This took place through an act, transubstantiation, which priests alone could perform. The Reformation rejected so direct an identity, along with the priority it granted priests over the laity. Still, the largest Reformation traditions preserved Christ's presence in the eleme…