The Doctrine of the Eucharist According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church

This article explores the place of the atonement in the Roman Catholic catechism and how it relates to their sacramental theology of the Eucharist. An evangelical evaluation of the Roman Catholic approach to atonement and the Eucharist are briefly introduced.

Generally speaking, Roman Catholic doctrinal statements, both creedal formulations and catechistic tools show a high degree of theological sophistication. The wisdom, depth, width of the sapiential tradition of the church is apparent in its official writings. Moreover, Catholic magisterial documents are usually articulated in a language so meditated, pondered and polished that they often require several readings in order to be grasped. It should be recognised that the Vatican, among many other things, also produces masterful pieces of theological elaboration. This is even truer with regard to the works of individual catholic theologians, think of Yves Congar, Karl Rahner, A very Dulles …. However, there are two doctrinal areas in which this combination of richness of thought and expository ability is not so evident as one would expect: one is these is eschatology, the other is the doctrine of the atonement. Download the full article’s pdf here.