Catholic Life and Practice

Soundings Toward a Eucharistic Christology

Robert Imbelli

Issue 3

Volume 2

pp. 545 - 562

https://doi.org/10.65172/o65khdQR5HvQJyT9

Abstract

Robert Imbelli offers a set of remarks, or “soundings,” on the mystery of the eucharistic Christ—his aims, continued presence, and transformative power in the life of believers. Imbelli argues that an authentic encounter with the eucharistic Christ ultimately leads to a eucharistic way of life.

Citations

Scott Hahn, Consuming the Word: The New Testament and the Eucharist in the Early Church (Image Books, 2013), 22.

Francis, Homily, October 29, 2023, vatican.va.

Jonathan Martin Ciraulo, The Eucharistic Form of God: Hans Urs von Balthasar’s Sacramental Theology (University of Notre Dame Press, 2022), 51.

Francis, Laudato Si’ §236, encyclical letter, May 24, 2015, vatican.va.

Benedict XVI, “Forever in God,” in Lord I Love You! Homilies Through the Liturgical Year, vol. 1, Lent, Easter, and Solemnities of the Lord, ed. Pietro Rossotti (The Catholic University of America Press, 2025), 176–77.

John R. Betz, “The Analogy of Tradition: Toward a More Radical Ressourcement,” The New Ressourcement 1, no. 3 (2024): 519–80

Benedict XVI, Sacramentum Caritatis §14, apostolic exhortation, February 22, 2007, vatican.va.

Douglas Farrow, Ascension Theology (T&T Clark, 2011), 122.

Irenaeus of Lyons, Adversus haereses 4.34.1

Gerhard Lohfink, Jesus of Nazareth: What He Wanted, Who He Was, trans. Linda M. Maloney (Liturgical, 2012), 8.

Dante, Paradiso, canto 33, line 131.

Brant Pitre, “The Quest and Jesus’s Divinity,” chap. 1 in Jesus and Divine Christology (Eerdmans, 2024)

Paul Griffiths, Christian Flesh (Stanford University Press, 2018), 51.

Robert P. Imbelli, Rekindling the Christic Imagination: Theological Meditations for the New Evangelization (Liturgical, 2014), 10–11.

John F. Crosby, “Heart Speaks to Heart,” chap. 3 in The Personalism of John Henry Newman (The Catholic University of America Press, 2014).

Jean Corbon, The Wellspring of Worship, trans. Matthew J. O’Connell (Paulist, 1988), 42.

David Augustine, “The Life-giving Stream,” chap. 11 in Christ and the Altar Fire: Sacrifice as Deification in Matthias Scheeben, foreword by Trent Pomplun (Emmaus Academic, 2025).

Jan-Heiner Tück, A Gift of Presence: The Theology and Poetry of the Eucharist in Thomas Aquinas, trans. Scott G. Hefelfinger (The Catholic University of America Press, 2018), 88.

Augustine, Confessions 7.10, trans. F. J. Sheed, ed. Michael J. Foley (with notes), foreword by Bishop Robert Barron (Word on Fire Classics, 2017), 156.

John of the Cross, “The Spiritual Canticle” 37.4, in The Collected Works of John of the Cross, trans. Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio Rodriguez (ICS, 1973), 551.

Ian Ker, Healing the Wound of Humanity: The Spirituality of John Henry Newman (Darton, Longman, and Todd, 1993), chaps. 7–8.

Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week: From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection, trans. Philip J. Whitmore (Ignatius, 2011), 283.

Anthony J. Kelly, Upward: Faith, Church, and the Ascension of Christ (Liturgical, 2014), 95.

Louis Bouyer, The Paschal Mystery, trans. Mary Benoit (Regnery, 1950), 121.

Henri de Lubac, A Brief Catechesis on Nature and Grace, trans. Brother Richard Arnandez (Ignatius, 1984), 81.

Robert P. Imbelli, “He Is the Head of the Body, the Church (Col 1:18): Salvation as Incorporation into Christ,” in Christ Brings All Newness, 132–56.

Sarah Coakley, Powers and Submissions: Spirituality, Philosophy and Gender (Blackwell, 2002), 131.

Charles Taylor, A Secular Age (Belknap, 2007).

Raniero Cantalamessa, “Jesus or Dionysus,” The Tablet, January 11, 2025, 6.

William T. Cavanaugh, The Uses of Idolatry (Oxford University Press, 2024), 342.

Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Mere Christian Hermeneutics: Transfiguring What It Means to Read the Bible Theologically (Zondervan, 2004).

Aaron Pidel, SJ, The Inspiration and Truth of Scripture: Testing the Ratzinger Paradigm (The Catholic University of America Press, 2023).

José Granados, “The Pandemic: A Sacramental Reading,” Communio 47, no. 3 (2020): 455–70, at 463.

David Deane, The Tyranny of the Banal: On the Renewal of Catholic Moral Theology (Fortress Academic, 2023), xvi.

Karl Rahner, “Christian Living Formerly and Today,” in Theological Investigations, vol. 7, trans. David Bourke (Herder, 1971), 15.

Benedict XVI, Sacramentum Caritatis §36, quoting Augustine, In Evangelium Johannis tractatus 21.8 (PL 35:1568).

Robert P. Imbelli, “A Eucharistic Form of Life” in Christ Brings All Newness: Essays, Reviews, and Reflections by Robert P. Imbelli, edited with an introduction by Richard G. Smith (Word on Fire Academic, 2023), 168–76.

Yves Congar, The Word and the Spirit, trans. David Smith (Chapman, 1986), 6.

Henri de Lubac, La postérité spirituelle de Joachim de Flore: De Joachim à nos jours, ed. Michael Sutton, Oeuvres Complètes 27–28 (Cerf, 2014).

Eugene R. Schlesinger, “Salvation as the Meaning of History,” chap. 7 in Salvation in Henri de Lubac: Divine Grace, Human Nature, and the Mystery of the Cross (University of Notre Dame Press, 2023).

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