The One Christ: St. Augustine's Theology of Deification
Ecclesial Reception of the Divine Life 227
Are we able to reconcile these two divergent idioms? At times, Eucharistic communion is merely spiritual and in no way involves a visible or physical dominical presence: "He who believes eats; he is nourished invisibly because he is reborn inwardly."103 Terms such as secundum quemdam modum, signum, and figura, or the reception of Christ's body mystice can at times dictate Augustine's sacramental theology. However, as Frederick Van der Meer states, Augustine "wrote at an epoch when the worship of the body and blood of Christ consisted simply in reverent reception . . . [a]nd in consequence the words figura and signum corporis Christi sound otherwise in their ears than they do now."104 J. N. D. Kelly here agrees. After tracing the arguments of those who show Augustine's symbolical doctrine only (viz., Friedrich Loofs, Adolph Harnack, and others who attribute only a receptionist view), Kelly argues: "There are certainly passages in his writings which give a superficial justification to all these interpretations, but a balanced verdict must agree that he accepted the current realism."105 Augustine himself sheds light on this modern quandary when he distinguishes between the various degrees of signs which the church uses to proclaim Christ.
The divine presence is signified in myriad ways throughout the economy of salvation. To illustrate this, Augustine turns to how Paul has brought the Christian message to the world. At times the Apostle would have utilized his tongue, at other times the written letter, but at other times he would celebrate the Lord's body and blood. This latter act is a qualitatively different type of signification, however, because "that
103. Jo. eu. tr. 26.1; Rettig, Tractates, 2.260. 104. Frederik van der Meer, Augustine the Bishop: The Life and Work of a Father of the Church, translated by B. Battershaw and G. R. Lamb (London: Sheed and Ward, 1961), 312. 105. J. N. D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines (London: Adam & Charles Black, [1958] 1965; 3rd ed.), 446.