ONLINE FIRST
published on August 4, 2017
Pavel Butakov
https://doi.org/10.5840/faithphil20178384
The Eucharistic Conquest of Time
Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox theologians claim that the unique event of Christ¡¯s sacrifice on Calvary is present in Eucharistic liturgies. A popular explanatory strategy for this miraculous presence suggests that due to its supernatural character the Eucharist ¡°conquers time,¡± transcends its boundaries, and allows for temporal coincidence of two chronologically distant events. I discuss the four main approaches within this strategy that can be discovered in contemporary theological writings. The first approach implies a time travel of the Calvary event. The second suggests the time travel of Eucharistic participants. The third eliminates the chronological distance by relocating one of the events into a timeless reality. The fourth assumes multilocation of the event across time. I argue that each of these approaches is untenable on philosophical or theological grounds.