Transignification

Part of a series on the
Eucharist Lord's Supper • Communion
Elements
Bread Wine
Ritual and liturgy
Divine Liturgy Divine Service Mass Requiem Tridentine Consecration/Anaphora Epiclesis Words of Institution Anamnesis
Practice and customs
Closed and Open Table Communion under both kinds Eucharistic adoration Eucharistic discipline Feast of Corpus Christi Reserved sacrament First Communion Infant Communion Viaticum Vessels Paten Chalice
History
Origin of the Eucharist Catholic historical roots
Theology
Sacrament Real presence Consubstantiation Impanation Metousiosis Receptionism Sacramental union Transignification Transubstantiation Memorialism Ordinance
Important theologians
Paul Luther Calvin Chrysostom Augustine Zwingli Thomas Aquinas Basil of Caesarea
Denominational teachings
Anglican Lutheran Latter-day Saint Roman Catholic
Related articles
Black Mass Christian views on alcohol Host desecration

Transignification is an idea originating from the attempts of Roman Catholic theologians, especially Edward Schillebeeckx, to better understand the mystery of the real presence of Christ at Mass in light of a new philosophy of the nature of reality that is more in line with contemporary physics.

Description

Transignification suggests that although Christ's body and blood are not physically present in the Eucharist, they are really and objectively so, as the elements take on, at the consecration, the real significance of Christ's body and blood which thus become sacramentally present.

It is thus contrasted not only to belief in a physical or chemical change in the elements, but also to the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church that there is a change only of the underlying reality, but not of anything that concerns physics or chemistry (see transubstantiation).

The concept of transignification is based on the thought that there are two kinds of presence, local and personal. Jesus is personally, but not locally, present at the Mass. One can be locally present, as when riding on a bus, but one's thoughts can be far away, making one personally not present.

The concept draws from ideas in the linguistic fields of structuralism, developed by Ferdinand de Saussure and that of semiotics to elaborate on the process of the Eucharist.^[1] These fields consider all meaningful signs as being divided into two complementary but indivisible parts, those of signifier and signified, both of which are determined by their psychological reality. In this framework, the Eucharistic Sacrament of the substance of Christ's Body and Blood appearing under the respective accidents of bread and wine would rather be interpreted as the signified (meaningful concept) of Christ's Body and Blood appearing under the signifiers (sensible, perceived impressions) of bread and wine.

One of the reasons for this shift in terms was an attempt to shed light on the somewhat obscure nature of the concept "substance", and to modernize and make more meaningful what is actually signified by the term substance.

The theory has been rejected by the Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church, in particular in Pope Paul VI's 1965 encyclical Mysterium Fidei.^[2] However, it is considered to be similar to the Anglican position set forth by Thomas Cranmer in the Book of Common Prayer, Article Of Religion, Number 28.^[3]

See also

• Anglican Eucharistic theology
• Consubstantiation
• Eucharistic theologies summarised
• Impanation
• Real Presence
• Transubstantiation

References

Catholic Church Organizations, papacy, teachings and liturgical traditions History Jesus Twelve Apostles Early Christianity History of the papacy Ecumenical Councils Missions Great Schism of East Crusades Great Schism of West Protestant Reformation Counter-Reformation Catholic Church by country Vatican City index Hierarchy Pope Cardinals Patriarchs Major Archbishops Primates Metropolitans Archbishops Diocesan Bishops Coadjutor Bishops Auxiliary Bishops Titular Bishops Bishops Emeriti Priesthood Theology Body and Soul Divine Grace Dogma One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church Original sin Saints list Salvation Sermon on the Mount The Ten Commandments Trinity Worship Sacraments Baptism Confirmation Eucharist Penance Anointing of the Sick Last rites Holy Orders Matrimony Mariology Roman Catholic Mariology Assumption History of Mariology Immaculate Conception Mariology of the popes Mariology of the saints Mother of God Perpetual Virginity Veneration Doctors of the Church Gregory the Great Ambrose Augustine of Hippo Jerome John Chrysostom Basil of Caesarea Gregory of Nazianzus Athanasius of Alexandria Cyril of Alexandria Cyril of Jerusalem John of Damascus Bede the Venerable Ephrem the Syrian Thomas Aquinas Bonaventure Anselm of Canterbury Isidore of Seville Peter Chrysologus Leo the Great Peter Damian Bernard of Clairvaux Hilary of Poitiers Alphonsus Liguori Francis de Sales Peter Canisius John of the Cross Robert Bellarmine Albertus Magnus Anthony of Padua Lawrence of Brindisi Teresa of Ávila Catherine of Siena Thérèse of Lisieux John of Ávila Hildegard of Bingen Gregory of Narek Pope Francis Conclave Inauguration Theology Canonizations Visits Preceding popes Pope Benedict XVI Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul I Pope Paul VI Pope John XXIII Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XI Pope Benedict XV Pope Pius X Pope Leo XIII (more) Religious institutes and similar Assumptionists Augustinians Benedictines Capuchin Order Carmelites Carthusians Congregations of Holy Cross Dominican Order Franciscan orders Jesuits Oratory of Saint Philip Neri International Associations of the Faithful International Federation of Catholic Parochial Youth Movements International Federation of Catholic Universities International Kolping Society Schoenstatt Movement International Union of Catholic Esperantists Sant'Egidio Community (more) Vatican II Definition of the Church Dei verbum Gaudium et spes Lumen gentium Nostra aetate Sacrosanctum Concilium Particular Churches and Liturgical rites Alexandrian Coptic Eritrean Ethiopian Antiochian Maronite Syriac Syro-Malankara Armenian Armenian Byzantine Albanian Belarusian Bulgarian Croatian Georgian Greek Hungarian Italo-Albanian Macedonian Melkite Romanian Russian Ruthenian Slovak Ukrainian East Syrian Chaldean Syro-Malabar Latin Roman Anglican Use Ordinariate Use Sarum Ambrosian Mozarabic Catholicism portal Pope portal