Theologian Brett Salkeld argues that Protestants and Catholics can find more common ground in the controversial Eucharist topic than they might think. Courtesy | Nyehob

Transubstantiation can unite Christians, not divide them, author and theologian Brett Salkeld said in a lecture Nov. 18.

Hillsdale College Catholic Society hosted Salkeld’s talk, “Transubstantiation and Christian Unity.” Salkeld has written several books, including “Transubstantiation: Theology, History, and Christian Unity” in 2019, and serves as an Archdiocesan Theologian for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Regina. 

The lecture attracted Catholic and Protestant students alike, leaving few empty seats in a basement Lane Hall classroom. 

“Dr. Salkeld’s work can help Catholics understand their own faith better, and it can help Protestants and others from developing a false understanding of that teaching,” said Professor of Theology Mickey Mattox. “I think he very much managed to do both those things. The event was a resounding success.”

Salkeld began his lecture by addressing its somewhat paradoxical title. He asked how transubstantiation can unify Christianity when it is the very thing that Protestant reformers rebelled against.

“You would almost think those two things can’t go together, right? Transubstantiation would be one of those things that is the opposite of Christian unity,” Salkeld said. “I try to make the case in the book that it need not be so.” 

According to Salkeld, it is deceptively easy for Catholics to fall into heresy just by using the wrong word to describe Christ’s presence in the Eucharist.

Salkeld recounted a meeting he had with a mentor while he was in college. While discussing the Eucharist, Salkeld said Christ is physically present in it. His professor called this statement heretical. 

“I thought, ‘Well, isn’t that interesting?’” Salkeld said. “If saying Christ is physically present isn’t the best way to talk about the Catholic position, I thought, then I’ve been in some arguments that I need to retrace.”

This revelation prompted Salkeld to research further into the history of the transubstantiation debate. 

According to Salkeld, Martin Luther firmly believed in the presence of Christ in the Eucharist. 

“He said transubstantiation might not be the best way to articulate it, but at least it’s an honest attempt at trying to say something really important: that Christ is really there,” Salkeld said. 

The key to this debate, Salkeld said, is using the proper terms when describing Christ’s presence. Rather than making the mistake of using words like “physically” or “literally,” Salkeld advised using language more in line with what the Catholic Church actually says. 

“If you read the Catechism on this and other sources in Catholic doctrine, it will use the language ‘really, truly, and substantially,’” Salkeld said. 

Another important aspect of understanding transubstantiation, according to Salkeld, is knowing where the action comes from. 

“The act of worship in the Eucharist is, first and foremost, Christ’s action,” Salkeld said. “It is Christ’s worship of the Father that we are brought into. The whole point is that we couldn’t do it ourselves.”

Transubstantiation, according to Salkeld, is God’s gift to humans so that they may be brought into Christ’s worship of God. 

“We couldn’t worship properly,” Salkeld said. “Our attempts at this are always flawed and falter. It has to be a gift from beyond us that makes this Eucharistic worship possible.”

Salkeld said his emphasis on transubstantiation being an act of God, not man, is important to unite Catholics and Protestants around the Eucharist.

“Because of the emphasis on faith alone, you don’t save yourself, right?’” Salked said. “God is the actor here, and so there’s the Catholic conviction. And real presence actually maps quite nicely onto a central Protestant conviction.”

Sophomore Robert Keeton, a Lutheran, attended Salkeld’s talk. 

“I was interested to come,” Keeton said. “Maybe transubstantiation doesn’t mean what we think it means.”

Transubstantiation properly understood, according to Salkeld, is in line with a lot of traditional Protestant theology. When Catholics and Protestants can agree on the real presence in the Eucharist, they can unite in Christian fellowship. 

“We need to affirm the same faith, but not the same theology,” Salkeld said.