Position · 1520

Sacramental Union

The Lutheran teaching that Christ’s true body and blood are present “in, with and under” the bread and wine, which remain bread and wine.

Martin Luther rejected Transubstantiation in 1520 but held firmly to Christ’s bodily presence, insisting on the plain words “This is my body”. At the Marburg Colloquy of 1529 he could not agree with Huldrych Zwingli, whose Memorialism he rejected. Lutherans also hold that unbelievers who receive the sacrament receive Christ’s body, though to their judgement. Critics sometimes call the view consubstantiation, a label Lutherans generally reject.