Many Christians of different churches and denominations are deeply annoyed and frustrated by the fact that there is not one Holy Communion for all of them. They not only complain but also develop theories and models of practical behaviour which pretend to erase the borderlines between the churches or justify their transgression. They presuppose more or less explicitly that there has once been a period of the history of Christianity when there was only one Church and one Lord's Supper which encompassed all believers. This study argues that the presupposition is untenable. Christianity has never been visibly one Church, and there has never been one Lord's Supper. On the contrary: Christianity has from the beginning always subsisted in very different types of communities, separated from each other by doctrinal and practical controversy, and these communities have expressed their specific profile in the way in which they understood and celebrated the Lord's upper. Whenever it is claimed that a certain ritual or theory of the Lord's upper is the only true or authentic one, the existence of other, competing theories and liturgies is overtly or implicitly admitted. The theories mentioned above have one fault in common: They are all devised from certain confessional/denominational perspectives and implicitly necessitate Christians of other confession denominations to adopt them. So this essay recommends refraining from all these attempts at forced unification and developing instead the habit of partaking in celebrations of the Lord's Supper in other churches as a "guest'': A person who is warmly welcomed, but is not part of the family, a person who does take part in some areas of the family's life but will never intrude on their innermost affairs.

Enthalten in:
Kerygma und Dogma; 2020/2 Zeitschrift für theologische Forschung und kirchliche Lehre (2020)

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Serie / Reihe: Kerygma und Dogma

Personen: Ohst, Martin

Schlagwörter: Katholische Kirche Kirchengeschichte Abendmahl Christentum Eucharistie Evangelische Kirche Frömmigkeit Herrenmahlsgemeinschaft