Position · 1536

Spiritual Presence

The Reformed teaching that believers truly feed on Christ’s body and blood in the Lord’s Supper, not by a change in the elements but by the work of the Holy Spirit, who unites them to Christ in heaven.

John Calvin set out this view in his Institutes, first published in 1536. It stands between Martin Luther’s Sacramental Union, which locates Christ’s body in the elements, and Huldrych Zwingli’s Memorialism, which treats the meal mainly as a remembrance. It became the standard view in Reformed confessions and influenced Anglican teaching.