The Body Broken: The Calvinist Doctrine of the Eucharist and the Symbolization of Power in Sixteenth-Century France

by Christopher Elwood

In the public religious controversies of sixteenth-century France, no subject received more attention or provoked greater passion that the eucharist. In this study of Reformation theologies of the eucharist, Christopher Elwood contends that the doctrine for which French Protestants argued played a pivotal role in the development of Calvinist revolutionary politics. By focusing on the new understandings of signs and symbols purveyed in Protestant writing on the sacrament of the Lords Supper, Elwood shows how adherents to the Reformation movement came to interpret the nature of power and the relation between society and the sacred in ways that departed radically from the views of their Catholic neighbors. The clash of religious, social, and political ideals focused in interpretations of the sacrament led eventually to political violence that tore France apart in the latter half of the sixteenth century.

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 21, 1998

About the author

Christopher Elwood is a historian of Christianity, with particular expertise in the early modern period and broad interest in other periods, who thinks of himself as a historical theologian.

“I think it is important that members of our churches become aware of the connections between what they believe and the social and political commitments they hold. This concern influences my efforts to encourage seminary students to see the way theological ideas ‘live’ in particular historical environments and how this has application to our own reflection on the beliefs we hold and the way we express them theologically.”

Teaching courses in theology and the history of Christianity, with a concentration on the period from the Reformation to the present, Dr. Elwood maintains research and writing interests in the history and theology of the Reformation period, the theology of John Calvin, theological interpretations of the body, gender and sexuality, and the intersections of theology and culture.

As the child of a diplomat, Dr. Elwood grew up in many places, including Brazil and Trinidad. He spent two years following his undergraduate studies serving as athe headmaster of Shiveye Secondary School in western Kenya. He was the pastor of two Congregational churches in Massachusetts and is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA). He joined the Louisville Seminary faculty in 1996, having taught previously at Harvard Divinity School and Davidson College. He is active in his local congregation and is a member of several organizations including the American Academy of Religion, the American Society of Church History, the American Historical Association, and the Sixteenth Century Studies Conference.

Dr. Elwood is author of The Body Broken: The Calvinist Doctrine of the Eucharist and the Symbolization of Power in Sixteenth-Century France (Oxford University Press, 1999) and Calvin for Armchair Theologians (Westminster John Knox, 2002) which has been translated and published in German and French. He is currently working on a study of understandings of embodiment, sexuality, and death that emerged from Christian cultures of the Reformation era.

Reviews

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good study of how the Lord's Supper was a flashpoint of controversy during the Reformation, because of its connections to the unity of Christendom and political power.

Gives a nice compare and contrast between Roman Catholic and Reformed views of the Supper. Also of interest was to see Roman Catholic critiques of the Reformed view of the Supper.

Also gets a bit into Reformed political theory.

Very fascinating study.