Steven Nemes

What does it mean to "eat Christ's flesh" (John 6:53)? And what does this eating have to do with the bread and wine of the eucharistic meal which Jesus called his "body" and "blood" (1 Cor 11:23-25)? These are central questions in the theology of the Eucharist. Memorialism says that to eat Christ's flesh is to take joy in Christ's person and work. The bread and wine of the Eucharist make it possible to engage in this sort of eating sacramentally by serving as symbols that represent Christ's person and work. This book presents a systematic case for memorialism. It addresses the biblical loci classici (the bread of life discourse, the words of institution, and 1 Corinthians), important early church sources (the Didache, Ignatius, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and Tertullian), and the philosophical-phenomenological interpretation of the Eucharist in Huldrych Zwingli and Michel Henry. It also argues against the alternative pneumatic and real presence paradigms in conversation with their historic and contemporary advocates.

What does it mean to "eat Christ's flesh" (John 6:53)? And what does this eating have to do with the bread and wine of the eucharistic meal which Jesus called his "body" and "blood" (1 Cor 11:23-25)? These are central questions in the theology of the Eucharist. Memorialism says that to eat Christ's flesh is to take joy in Christ's person and work. The bread and wine of the Eucharist make it possible to engage in this sort of eating sacramentally by serving as symbols that represent Christ's person and work. This book presents a systematic case for memorialism. It addresses the biblical loci classici (the bread of life discourse, the words of institution, and 1 Corinthians), important early church sources (the Didache, Ignatius, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and Tertullian), and the philosophical-phenomenological interpretation of the Eucharist in Huldrych Zwingli and Michel Henry. It also argues against the alternative pneumatic and real presence paradigms in conversation with their historic and contemporary advocates.

This book argues that the doctrine of God taken for granted in the catholic tradition (divine transcendence, creatio ex nihilo, divine simplicity) makes it impossible to give an intelligible and coherent interpretation of the verbal formulas of the catholic dogmas of Trinity and incarnation. By way of response to this apparent incoherence at the heart of the catholic theological tradition, it proposes an alternative post-catholic take on these central doctrines in the light of a qualified monistic conception of God and a "Spirit Christological" interpretation of Jesus's relation to God the Father as presented in the New Testament.

This book proposes a radical critique of the methodological and onto-epistemological presuppositions of the catholic tradition of theology for the sake of a post-catholic Protestant reinterpretation of the Christian faith without metaphysics. Drawing from the thought of Michel Henry and Huldrych Zwingli while making unique contributions of its own, it addresses the method for theology, theological onto-epistemology, the doctrine of God, the person and work of Jesus, the nature of the Church and of Christian faith, and the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist.

Who in the church has the right to tell others what is to be done or believed for the sake of friendship with God? How are theological disputes and differences of opinion to be resolved? Against the recent trend toward more "traditionalist" and "hierarchical" conceptions of the church's role in theology, this book argues from the New Testament itself for a "low" conception of ecclesial theological authority. Drawing especially from Jesus's polemics against the Pharisees, it makes the case that no one in the church has any further authority than that of derivatively, fallibly, and in principle reversibly relating and bearing witness to the teachings of Jesus and the works of God in him. The book concludes with an extended consideration of the radical anti-dogmatic and anti-metaphysical consequences of this thesis for the future of Protestant Christian theology vis-a-vis the catholic tradition.

Who in the church has the right to tell others what is to be done or believed for the sake of friendship with God? How are theological disputes and differences of opinion to be resolved? Against the recent trend toward more "traditionalist" and "hierarchical" conceptions of the church's role in theology, this book argues from the New Testament itself for a "low" conception of ecclesial theological authority. Drawing especially from Jesus's polemics against the Pharisees, it makes the case that no one in the church has any further authority than that of derivatively, fallibly, and in principle reversibly relating and bearing witness to the teachings of Jesus and the works of God in him. The book concludes with an extended consideration of the radical anti-dogmatic and anti-metaphysical consequences of this thesis for the future of Protestant Christian theology vis-a-vis the catholic tradition.

'Orthodoxy' and 'heresy' are essential categories by which the 'Catholic' theological tradition evaluates the (im)propriety of various beliefs and practices relative to its non-negotiable commitments. This Element sketches moments in the development of Christian 'orthodoxy' and 'heresy' in time, as much in the Old and New Testament as in the history of the Church. It also touches upon the vexed theological-methodological question of the relation between Scripture and ecclesial Tradition before concluding with a critique of the 'Catholic' tradition's preoccupation with 'orthodoxy' and 'heresy' in favor of a Christian theology 'without anathemas' that is concerned only for truth.