I’ll be honest. I’ve struggled to find a good book on the Catholic belief in the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. The books with the most comprehensive approach tend to be so academically focused that they are difficult for the average reader to approach while those written for popular audiences tend to fall into some common traps.

Some of these books reduce the theology to a rigidly formulaic approach – relying on an Aristotelian cosmology which no longer connects with contemporary worldviews. Others express a mystical richness and beauty but offer little concrete scaffolding upon which a substantive understanding can be built. Few touch on the historical development of the doctrine in any significant way which disconnects the theology from the context in which it was developed.

Real Presence by Timothy P. O’Malley is a popular-level book on the doctrine that manages to successfully navigate all the above-mentioned issues masterfully. He helps the reader understand the landscape biblically, historically, and theologically in a way that has practical relevance. He preserves love and appreciation for terms like “Transubstantiation” while acknowledging the real challenges associated with creating meaning around the underlying categories which in a post-Aristotelian world.

Perhaps most importantly, O’Malley manages to make the subject joyful and fun to read about.

I will certainly be recommending this volume to many. For those new to the study of sacramental theology, it’s a primer without rival on the doctrine of Real Presence.

I truly enjoyed Timothy O'Malley's book, Real Presence. As a Catholic revert who is re-learning the faith, O'Malley gave clear and in-depth explanations for the presence of Christ in the Eucharist. I especially liked the connections he drew to the manna in the desert from the book of Exodus and the writings of the early Church Fathers on the Eucharist. It made the New Testament teachings hold more meaning for me. And I am looking forward to going to Mass, knowing all I have available to me in the Bread and Wine.

I've had an hour of Adoration--prayer in the chapel where the Eucharist is exposed--for over ten years now. I have committed to my parish to be the person in the chapel during that hour each week. Some weeks it is a great way to end the work week (I go on Friday nights); other weeks, I'll admit that skipping crosses my mind. Sometimes I really feel His presence in the chapel; other times I don't. I've always accepted the doctrine of the Real Presence in much the same way I've accepted a lot of other things I've been taught over the years--the people who were supposed to know this stuff taught it to me and I never came across a reason to disagree.

I selected this book hoping for fodder for meditation or inspiration or something. As I had read another book in the same series I was expecting a relatively easy read. Unfortunately I never really connected with this book. It talked a lot about Eucharistic theology and quoted some mystics from the middle ages as well as relatively modern people like Dorothy Day. Still, I'd read a few pages and when I thought about them, I'd have a hard time recalling what I read. I tried reading big chunks and small and in the end I abandoned the book about 3/4 of the way through.

I'd like to thank the publisher for making a review copy available via NetGalley. Hopefully it will speak to you more than it did to me. Grade: C.

In 2019, a Pew Research Center study on the religious commitment and practice of American Catholics found a significant number of the faith did not have an accurate or complete understanding of the "Real Presence" of Christ in the Eucharist Sacrament. This prompted Cardinal Seán O’Malley of the Archdiocese of Boston to proclaim a "Year of the Eucharist" for 2020-2021 to help rehabilitate the faithful. The "Real Presence" by Dr. Timothy O'Malley could very well be required reading in support of that endeavor. Chapter One tackles the "Obstacles to Real Presence" by identifying three (3) points of confusion: an over-reliance on a physical interpretation of presence, a lack of reverence and an apparent false dichotomy between reverence and recognition of Christ's presence in others. Along the way, Fr. Thomas Reese S.J. is thrown under the bus for declaring that he "find[s] the theology of transubstantiation to be unintelligible" and that we should just "accept it as a mystery and not pretend we understand it." Unfortunately if we do that, I think that we take away some of the power that particular sacrament is supposed to have.

Chapter Two looks at the Real Presence in the Scriptures. Here is where Dr. O'Malley really shines because he focuses on what we mean by presence. After that we move on to Chapter Three to examine how the early Church Father's developed the "doctrine of Eucharistic presence" where the terms Body and Blood are associated to the Bread and Wine. The language used by the early Fathers is not easily understood here and I think this is where most readers start to fall away. While I can acknowledge the mystagogical element to the real presence, my modern mind has trouble with the constant use of Body and Blood when I do not see an actual body or blood. Why must these be linked in the Eucharist? What do we mean when we say Body? Can we explain that term other than symbolically if we don't actually have [what we normally view as] a physical body?

Chapter Four - Savoring the Mystery of Transubstantiation, attempts to answer these questions. After spending a little time with a couple of quarreling monks to define the argument as reality vs symbolic, Dr. O'Malley spends the reminder looking at St. Thomas Aquinas ... an amazing doctor of the church whose theology builds upon the concepts of substance and accidents decried by the afore mentioned Fr. Reese when he states that he does not "believe in prime matter, substantial forms, substance and accidents." Ultimately we get little here other than the belief that the bread and wine are transubstantiated into the true Body and Blood of Christ because the Church says so. Score one for Fr. Reese.

Chapter Five - Eucharistic Devotion and Real Presence, doesn't really add much to the debate, but it does offer a look at how the [various] practices of adoration can enable us to recognize the Real Presence in the Eucharist. While this was not the slam dunk that I was looking for, it does give my plenty to meditate on ... YMMV

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
#RealPresence #NetGalley #YearoftheEucharist

For the last 50+ years, Catholic catechetical education has been sorely lacking. A huge majority of Catholics do not know what transubstantiation means & it is one of the fundamental dogmas of Catholicism.

Cudos to Notre Dame and Ave Maria Press for working to rectify this with new book series on fundamental topics in Catholicism and in Catholic history. These books are short, .orthodox, and very accessible.

Real Presence deals with an important topic in a thorough way, even making the writings of Augustine and Aquinas easy to understand. The book shows us in five chapters the Biblical basis of transubstantiation and the real presence, what the Church Fathers wrote about it, and the very practical advice of medieval and modern women on Eucharist Adoration.

The longest chapter in the book is a thorough analysis of Aquinas' Corpus Christi hymn, Laudo Sion. Through this wonderful analysis, which includes recaps of parts of the saint's important works, the entire theology of the Real Presence is made clear.

I learned so much from this book!