Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 73:2 (Fall 2011)
Article: Calvin’s Doctrine Of The Lord’s Supper: A Blot Upon His Labors As A Public Instructor?
Author: Ralph Cunnington

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Calvin’s Doctrine Of The Lord’s Supper:
A Blot Upon His Labors As A Public Instructor?

Ralph Cunnington

Ralph Cunnington is a Th.M. student at Westminster Theological Seminary in London and a Research Associate at the Wales Evangelical School of Theology in Bridgend.

William Cunningham referred to the doctrine as “perhaps the greatest blot on the history of Calvin’s labors as a public instructor.”1 Charles Hodge considered it to be an “uncongenial foreign element” in Reformed theology.2 For Robert Dabney it was “not only incomprehensible but impossible.”3 This article will seek to evaluate their assessment of Calvin’s doctrine of the Lord’s Supper. In the first part, a brief overview of Calvin’s doctrine will be provided with the doctrine set within its historical and theological context. The second part will critically examine the main objections raised against the doctrine by Cunningham, Hodge, and Dabney. It will be shown that the criticisms lack persuasive merit and reveal a prior departure from Calvin’s central soteriological idea of union with Christ.

I. Calvin’s Doctrine: A Real Spiritual Presence

J. W. Nevin insisted that “any theory of the eucharist will be found to accord closely with the view that is taken, at the same time, of the nature of the union generally between Christ and his people.”4 This is certainly true of Calvin. The same concept of union lies at the heart of both his doctrine of redemption and his understanding of the Lord’s Supper. Book 3 of the Institutes begins: “[A]s long as Christ remains outside of us, and we are separated from him, all that he has suffered and done for the salvation of the human race remains useless and of no value for us. Therefore, to share with us what he has received from the Father, he had to become ours and to dwell within us.”5 This emphasis is reflected again in Calvin’s discussion of the Lord’s Supper in Book 4: “Godly souls can

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gather great assurance and delight from this Sacrament: in it they have a witness of our growth into one body with Christ such that whatever is his may be called ours.”6 For Calvin, the work of Christ was undertaken not simply in his Spirit but in his humanity, and therefore to participate in its benefits the believer has to partake of Christ’s humanity.7

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