A Catechism of Melanchthon's Doctrine of the Lord's Supper
Preface
I love Melanchthon. I named my third son Philip in his honor. His Loci Communes Theologici is my favorite theology text. I refer to it often. I teach from it often. I meditate on it often. This may sound strange to some Lutherans because many of the Reformation history books read in seminaries state that Melanchthon went off the rails after Luther's death. In the introduction to the second English edition of the 1559 Loci, Benjamin Mayes mentions several of the charges that have been leveled against Melanchthon. These are taken from F. Bente's famous Historical Introduction to the Book of Concord, which places all the problems that lead to the Formula at poor Philip's feet. Modern histories like Nick Needham's excellent "2000 Years of Christ's Power" also rely upon Bente.
Among these charges is that Melanchthon denied the Real Presence and became Reformed on the Supper.[i] Others state that he became a “receptionist,” limiting the real presence to the moment of reception. It is important to note, however, that there are scholars who stand outside of this apparent consensus. In his biographical sketch of Melanchthon, Dr. Scott Keith notes that it is very difficult to prove these charges from Melanchthon’s dogmatic/theological writings.[ii] A rousing defense of Philip comes from a lecture given at Concordia Seminary Fort Wayne back in 1988 by the late Lowell C. Green.[iii] Elsewhere, Green has noted that Article VII of the Formula of Concord really is a compromise between Melanchthon’s and Luther’s views.[iv] I myself would like to read Melanchthon as charitably as possible.
But what was Melanchthon’s view of the Supper? It may seem obvious that we must rely on his dogmatic and theological writings to determine his view. However, others quickly ignore these works and rely on his private correspondence. The major works of Melanchthon’s theology were combined in his lifetime into a book called the Corpus Doctrinae Christinae, nicknamed the Corpus Philippicum. A good scan of the 1565 edition is available through Google Books.[v] This contained what Philip thought were the most important of his theological works. We find the Augsburg Confession, the Variata, the Apology to the Confession, the Repetition of the Augsburg Confession (also known as the Saxon Confession), the Examination before the Rite of Ordination, the 1559 edition of the Loci Praecipui Theologici, and the Bavarian Articles. To these, we may add the Wittenberg Concord of 1536.
Looking at these works, I asked myself, “what would the Small Catechism look like if Philip had written it?” So, I wrote a catechism-like summary of Philip’s view of the Supper. The answers to the questions are quotes from Melanchthon’s theological works. What follows below is not given to defend Melanchthon but to outline his view. I will let the reader determine how orthodox Philip's views are based on what he himself said.
A CATECHISM OF MELANCHTHON'S DOCTRINE OF THE LORD’S SUPPER
1. What is a sacrament?
“Sacrament” is a ceremony established in the Gospel to be a testimony to the promise that belongs to the Gospel, that is, the promise of reconciliation or grace.[vi]
2. What is the difference between a sacrament and a sacrifice?
A sacrament is a ceremony or work in which God presents to us what the promise joined to the ceremony offers.[vii] A sacrifice is a ceremony or a work of ours which we render to God so that we honor Him, that is, we bear witness that we acknowledge that He to whom we give obedience is the true God, and for this reason we do render Him this obedience.[viii]
3. What is the Lord's Supper?
It is the communion of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, established in the words of the Gospel.[ix]
4. Where are these words written?
The ceremony is described by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Paul.[x]
“Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night when He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to the disciples and said: ‘Take, eat; this is My body, which is given for you. This do in remembrance of Me.’
“In the same way also He took the cup after supper, and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them saying, ‘Drink of it, all of you; this cup is the new testament in My blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me’” (Matthew 26:26–28; Mark 14:22–24; Luke 22:19–20; 1 Corinthians 11:23–25).
5. What do we believe by these words?
In this Sacrament, the Son of God is truly and substantially present.[xi] Through this ministry, He gives His own body and blood to those who eat and drink, and He testifies that He applies His gracious benefits to the believers.[xii]
6. What is the meaning of “Do this in remembrance of Me?”
We speak His Word over bread and wine and distribute such among the congregation.[xiii] You should hear the human words of the Supper in no other way than if you were hearing Christ Himself speaking to you.[xiv] He commands us to do what is instituted, namely: "take, eat, drink of this, all of you."[xv] It is a Sacrament when all causes coincide and the intention of its purpose, for which it was instituted, is observed.[xvi]
7. Is this to be understood as an empty spectacle or memorial?
This is not an empty spectacle, and we should not imagine that this is a memorial to a dead man, like the spectacles in honor of Hercules and the like. We must reject these profane notions. Christ is truly present not only with His efficacy but also with His substance.[xvii]
8. How is Christ present bodily in the sacrament?
Some want to enclose Christ in the bread by various means – conversion, transubstantiation or ubiquity – but such unnatural notions were unknown to the ancient doctors.[xviii] Although we do not hold to transubstantiation, nor do we hold that the body and blood of Christ are locally or spatially enclosed in the bread or in any other way permanently united with it, outside of the partaking of the Sacrament, we nevertheless acknowledge that through sacramental union the bread is the body of Christ; that is when the bread is offered, the body of Christ is at the same time present and truly offered.[xix]
9. What are the benefits of eating?
The primary benefit is to confirm faith by this testimony and to establish that, by this pledge or seal, the Son of God himself assures you that He applies His benefits to you.[xx] For here in the Sacrament, the remission of sins is offered and applied to the believer.[xxi]
10. Who comes worthily to the Supper?
The ones who come worthily are the ones who seriously repent. Having been instructed by the testimony and promise of the new covenant, they strengthen their faith.[xxii] By this eating, a person receives the Sacrament and acquires the remission of sins and the Holy Spirit.[xxiii]
11. What do those who eat unworthily receive?
Those who do not have the fear of God and faith, or repentance and faith, and knowingly persevere in sins contrary to conscience, are unworthy to eat.[xxiv] The eating is of no benefit to those who are not repentant and continue in their sins against conscience.[xxv] However, since the body and blood of Christ are truly and substantially present and are truly distributed with the bread and wine, the body and blood of Christ are also truly offered to the unworthy. But such receive this to judgment, as St. Paul says.[xxvi]
12. Who may be admitted to the Supper?
The Sacrament is made available to those who wish to partake of it, after they have been examined and absolved.[xxvii] Pastors are to determine the doctrine and faith of individuals among the people.[xxviii] For the people use it, but only after they have been instructed and examined.[xxix]
13. How may the Supper be abused?
It is a manifest desecration to carry about part of the Supper of the Lord, to adore it;[xxx] and when they say that they are offering the Son of God for the living and the dead. But Christ says, “take and eat” (Matt. 26:26).[xxxi] It must be held as a rule: nothing has the nature of a Sacrament outside the use that God institutes.[xxxii] That is, it is not a sign of grace which is pleasing to God when something is set up outside or beside the Word of God, or when the ceremony is changed into a work of a different kind, that is, when a different purpose is set forth than that which has been established by God.[xxxiii] But in the use appointed, Christ is present in this Communion, truly and substantially, and the body and blood of Christ indeed given to those who receive it.[xxxiv]
14. How should we deal with controversies in the Lutheran Church surrounding the Supper?
Contentions on both sides should be prohibited, and one and the same form of words should be used.[xxxv] In this controversy, it would be best to retain the words of Paul: “The bread which we break is the communion of the body of Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:16).[xxxvi] He does not say that the nature of the bread is changed, as the Papists say. He does not say that the bread is the substantial body of Christ. He does not say that the bread is the true body of Christ, but that it is a κοινωνίαν (communion), that is, a uniting with the body of Christ, which happens in the use.[xxxvii]
[i] Benjamin Mayes, "Introduction to the Second Edition," in Loci Praecipui Theologici 1559, Second English Edition (St. Louis: Concorida, 2011), xvii-xxii.
[ii] Scott Keith, Meeting Melanchthon (Irvine, CA: NPR Books, 2017), 24-25.
[iii] Lowell C. Green, "When did Melanchthon become a Philippist on the Lord's Supper?" (lecture, Concordia Theological Seminary, Ft. Wayne, January 20, 1988), https://scholar.csl.edu/churchhistory/Church_History/Schedule/27/.
[iv] Lowell C. Green, "Article VII. The Holy Supper," in Contemporary Look at the Formula of Concord (St. Louis: Concordia, 1978), 205-231.
[v] Philip Melanchthon, Corpus Doctrinae Christianae (Leipzig: Prince Elector of Saxony, 1565), https://www.google.com/books/edition/Corpus_doctrinae_christianae/KqBoAAAAcAAJ.
[vi] Melanchthon, Loci Praecipui Theologici 1559, 255. Ap XIII.3-4.
[vii] Robert Kolb, Timothy J. Wengert, and Charles P. Arand, The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2000), Ap XXIV.18.
[viii] Melanchthon, Loci Praecipui Theologici 1559, 279. Cf. “Examen Eorum Qui Audiuntur Ante Ritum Publicae Ordinationis,” Corpus Doctrinae Christinae, 724. Ap XXIV.18.
[ix] Melanchthon, “Examen Eorum Qui Audiuntur Ante Ritum Publicae Ordinationis” in Corpus Doctrinae Christinae, 722. Ap X.1 cf. 1 Corinthians 10:16.
[x] Melanchthon, Loci Praecipui Theologici 1559, 271.
[xi] Melanchthon, “Examen Eorum Qui Audiuntur Ante Ritum Publicae Ordinationis” in Corpus Doctrinae Christinae, 722. Ap 10.1, 4
[xii] Melanchthon, Loci Praecipui Theologici 1559, 271. Melanchthon, “Examen Eorum Qui Audiuntur Ante Ritum Publicae Ordinationis” in Corpus Doctrinae Christinae, 722. Ap X.1
[xiii] Philip Melanchthon, Melanchthon on Christian Doctrine: Loci Communes 1555, trans. Clyde L. Manschreck (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965), 218.
[xiv] Melanchthon, Loci Praecipui Theologici 1559, 271.
[xv] Melanchthon, “Articuli Bavaricae Inquisitionis” in Corpus Doctrinae Christinae, 804. Ap XXIV.71; XXII.3
[xvi] Philip Melanchthon, "De Transsubstantiatione" In Corpus Reformatorum, edited by Carolus Gottlieb Bretschneider, Vol. IV, (Balis Saxonum: C. A. Schwetschke et Filii, 1837), 264.
[xvii] Melanchthon, Loci Praecipui Theologici 1559, xx. Ap XXIV.72
[xviii] Philip Melanchthon, "Responsio Philip. Melanth. ad quaestionem de controversia Heidelbergensi" In Corpus Reformatorum, edited by Carolus Gottlieb Bretschneider, Vol. IX, (Balis Saxonum: C. A. Schwetschke et Filii, 1841) 963.
[xix] Philip Melanchthon, “Appendix 3: The Wittenberg Concord, 1536” in The Wittenberg Concord: Creating Space for Dialogue (Minneapolis: Fortress Press), 191.
[xx] Melanchthon, “Examen Eorum Qui Audiuntur Ante Ritum Publicae Ordinationis” in Corpus Doctrinae Christinae, 723.
[xxi] Melanchthon, Loci Praecipui Theologici 1559, 273.
[xxii] Melanchthon, Loci Praecipui Theologici 1559, 273-274.
[xxiii] Melanchthon, Loci Praecipui Theologici 1559, 274.
[xxiv] Melanchthon, Loci Praecipui Theologici 1559, 272.
[xxv] Melanchthon, Loci Praecipui Theologici 1559, 272.
[xxvi] Ap X.1. Melanchthon, The Wittenberg Concord, 192.
[xxvii] Melanchthon, Ap XXIV.1
[xxviii] Loci Praecipui Theologici 1559, 277.
[xxix] Melanchthon, Ap XXIV.49.
[xxx] Melanchthon, “Repetitio Confessionis Augustanae” in Corpus Doctrinae Christinae, 266.
[xxxi] Melanchthon, Loci Praecipui Theologici 1559, 277.
[xxxii] Melanchthon, “Articuli Bavaricae Inquisitionis” in Corpus Doctrinae Christinae, 804.
[xxxiii] Melanchthon, Loci Praecipui Theologici 1559, 277.
[xxxiv] Melanchthon, “Repetitio Confessionis Augustanae” in Corpus Doctrinae Christinae, 263.
[xxxv] Melanchthon, CR IX.964.
[xxxvi] Melanchthon, CR IX.963.
[xxxvii] Melanchthon, CR IX.962.
Rev. Matthew Fenn is associate pastor at Ascension Lutheran Church in Waterloo, Iowa, and provost at American Lutheran Theological Seminary. He and his wife Laurin have five children.