This book is a sweeping, readable history of one of Christianity's most compelling mysteries: the presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Spanning the New Testament origins through patristic formation, medieval devotion, Reformation conflict, scholastic systematization, conciliar reform, and contemporary ecumenical and global practice, the work tells a single story in many voices-scripture and sermon, liturgy and theology, controversy and devotion. It combines rigorous scholarship with pastoral sensitivity so that scholars, clergy, and curious readers alike will understand how doctrine, worship, and everyday piety shaped one another across two millennia.
The narrative moves beyond academic summary to recover the living materials of Christian faith. Primary texts appear throughout-Gospel narratives, Fathers, medieval treatises, Reformers, council decrees, and liturgical anaphoras-quoted and read as the formative sources they were. The book explains why disputes that look technical on the surface (substance and accidents, epiclesis, concomitance) mattered in parish life, pilgrimage, politics, and mission. It shows how processions, devotions, hymns, and the architecture of worship gave doctrine its force, and how theological language in turn disciplined popular piety.
This is both a history and a handbook: historically minded readers will appreciate archival depth and careful citation; ministers and parish leaders will find ready applications for preaching, formation, and liturgical planning; general readers will discover accessible explanations of why the Mass, the Divine Liturgy, or the Lord's Supper still shape communities and politics. Concise chapter synopses, a substantial bibliography, and carefully integrated primary quotations make the book a durable resource for classrooms, sermon preparation, and book groups.
Readable, authoritative, and pastorally practical, this book invites readers into the centuries-long conversation about how the living Christ is given to his people. It promises not only to illuminate why Christians have argued and worshiped as they have, but to renew a sense that the Eucharist remains a decisive formational power for discipleship, mission, and the pursuit of unity in a fractured world.