
A New Sacramental Theology for e-Eucharist?
Author(s) -
Mattijs Ploeger
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
yearbook for ritual and liturgical studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2589-3998
DOI - 10.21827/yrls.36.54-70
Subject(s) - eucharist , omnipresence , theology , supper , philosophy
During the 2020–21 COVID-19 crisis, participation in the eucharist was largely reduced to watching a service on television or online. This article focuses on whether such a form of participation in the eucharist – perhaps enhanced by taking some bread and wine individually in front of the screen – could be called sacramental participation from the point of view of a (broadly Catholic) systematic sacramental theology. I argue that a spiritual form of real presence is possible by virtue of Christ’s omnipresence, but that sacramental presence is inevitably dependent on embodiment and locality.