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Examined Doctrine
Church & Sacraments

The Lord's Supper

In what sense is Christ present in the bread and wine?

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The elements become Christ's body and…True bodily presence inReal but spiritual presenceA memorial and signTruly the body and bloodNo stance
23 FIGURES · 16 QUOTED · 5 WITHOUT A STANCE

The elements become Christ's body and…

The elements become Christ's body and blood

Thomas Aquinas1225 – 1274AFFIRMS°STANDARD ACCOUNT

True bodily presence in

True bodily presence in, with, and under the elements

Martin Luther1483 – 1546AFFIRMS°PRIMARY SOURCE❝ QUOTEDPhilip Melanchthon1497 – 1560CONTESTEDDISPUTED READING❝ QUOTED

Real but spiritual presence

Real but spiritual presence, received by faith

Augustine of Hippo354 – 430CONTESTED°DISPUTED READINGJohn Calvin1509 – 1564AFFIRMS°PRIMARY SOURCE❝ QUOTEDJohn Owen1616 – 1683AFFIRMS°PRIMARY SOURCE❝ QUOTEDJonathan Edwards1703 – 1758AFFIRMS°PRIMARY SOURCE❝ QUOTEDSecond London Baptist Confession1689AFFIRMS°PRIMARY SOURCE❝ QUOTEDWestminster Confession1646AFFIRMS°PRIMARY SOURCE❝ QUOTEDJohn Wesley1703 – 1791LEANS°PRIMARY SOURCE❝ QUOTEDR.C. Sproul1939 – 2017AFFIRMS°PRIMARY SOURCE❝ QUOTEDTim Keller1950 – 2023AFFIRMS°STANDARD ACCOUNT

A memorial and sign

A memorial and sign; no presence in the elements

Huldrych Zwingli1484 – 1531AFFIRMS°PRIMARY SOURCE❝ QUOTEDJohn MacArthur1939 – 2025AFFIRMS°PRIMARY SOURCE❝ QUOTEDMichael S. Heiser1963 – 2023LEANS°PRIMARY SOURCE❝ QUOTED

Truly the body and blood

Truly the body and blood, with no account of the mode

Basil the Greatc.330 – 379CONTESTED°DISPUTED READING❝ QUOTEDIrenaeus of Lyonsc.130 – c.202AFFIRMS°PRIMARY SOURCE❝ QUOTEDJohn Chrysostomc.347 – 407AFFIRMS°PRIMARY SOURCE❝ QUOTED

Figures who hold no stance here

These are not gaps in the table. Each group below says which kind of blank it is — searched and not found, held open on purpose, never framed in these terms, or deliberately unassigned because no stance fits.

NO STANCE FITS1 FIGURE

Researched, and deliberately unassigned — every available stance would misdescribe the figure.

QUESTION NOT FRAMED1 FIGURE

Never posed in the terms this locus uses. Foreign to the figure, not unanswered.

NO POSITION FOUND3 FIGURES

Searched and not located. An honest gap in the corpus.

How to read a cell — sourcing tiers, blanks, and why some figures are never quoted
PRIMARY SOURCEread in a primary source
STANDARD ACCOUNTstandard scholarly account
DISPUTED READINGdisputed among scholars
NOT LOCATEDnot located in a source

A cell marked quoted carries the figure's own words — 285 of 402of them, about 71%. Where there is no quotation the claim is still sourced, and the tier says how far. 4 figures carry no quotation at all, for reasons that differ: a living author cannot be quoted at length under copyright where Calvin can, and a figure at the standard account tier has simply had no primary-source pass yet. 4 of them state their own reason on their page.

A state label ending in ° was read from the stance, tier and note rather than stated by the corpus. See themethodology.