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Eucharistic Participation: The Reconfiguration of Time and Space
Eucharistic Participation deals with the importance of the Eucharist, and in the process challenges Protestants (and especially evangelicals) to treat the Eucharist more seriously than they sometimes do. In particular, Boersma re-addresses the two issues of the Lord's Supper as sacrifice and as real presence. These were the two issues central to the Eucharistic debates of the Protestant Reformation. This booklet is written from an attitude of sympathy with the motivations and concerns of the Reformers. At the same time, it suggests that it is possible to get beyond the disagreements of the Reformation period. If we take seriously the notion of "participation"—the idea that in the Eucharistic celebration we share in Christ and in his work—we can affirm both "sacrificial" language and talk of "real presence"—while at the same time holding on to the all-sufficient and unique character of Christ's sacrifice. Participation, so Boersma argues, reconfigures our understanding of both time and space. If past, present, and future coincide in and through Christ, this means that what we do today in the Eucharist can participate in the unique sacrifice of Christ without undermining it. And if heaven and earth are reunited in and through Christ, this means that the heavenly reality of Christ's body can become really present in the celebration of the Eucharist. Serious ecumenical dialogue requires, therefore, that Protestants do justice to the theology of participation as they try to come to grips with the disagreements between Rome and the Reformation.
46 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 19, 2013
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About the author
Hans Boersma
31 books96 followersI serve in the Saint Benedict Servants of Christ Chair in Ascetical Theology at Nashotah House in Wisconsin—a community of formation marked by the fullness of Anglican faith and practice, Benedictine spirituality, and classical Christian thought and teaching. (If you’re interested in studying at Nashotah House, contact me: hboersma@nashotah.edu). I am a Priest in the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA).
Before coming to Nashotah House in 2019, I taught for fourteen years at Regent College in Vancouver, BC and for six years at Trinity Western University in Langley, BC. I also served several years as a pastor in a Reformed church. I grew up in the Netherlands and have been in Canada since 1983.
My interests range across a variety of areas: patristic theology, twentieth-century Catholic thought, and spiritual interpretation of Scripture. In each of these areas, I am driven by a desire to retrieve the ‘sacramental ontology’ of the pre-modern tradition. So, much of my work looks to the past in hopes of recovering a sacramental mindset. I suppose this makes me a ressourcement (retrieval) theologian of sorts. Retrieval of the Great Tradition’s sacramental ontology has been at the heart of almost all my publications over the past twenty years or so.
Before coming to Nashotah House in 2019, I taught for fourteen years at Regent College in Vancouver, BC and for six years at Trinity Western University in Langley, BC. I also served several years as a pastor in a Reformed church. I grew up in the Netherlands and have been in Canada since 1983.
My interests range across a variety of areas: patristic theology, twentieth-century Catholic thought, and spiritual interpretation of Scripture. In each of these areas, I am driven by a desire to retrieve the ‘sacramental ontology’ of the pre-modern tradition. So, much of my work looks to the past in hopes of recovering a sacramental mindset. I suppose this makes me a ressourcement (retrieval) theologian of sorts. Retrieval of the Great Tradition’s sacramental ontology has been at the heart of almost all my publications over the past twenty years or so.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
April 8, 2023
I'm very pleased to see Hans Boersma's little treatise 'Eucharistic Participation: The Reconfiguration of Time and Space' now in print. With his affinity for the Church Fathers and Roman Catholic theologians such as Henri de Lubac, I was always curious to know Boersma's perspective on the Eucharist, "the source and summit of Christian life." He writes:
"Although I think it is fair to say Thomas Aquinas cautiously guards against this danger, we do need to be watchful with transubstantiation. We should not think that the bread gets changed into another, this-worldly substance - a danger that I worry is difficult to avoid especially in the Catholic devotional practice of adoration of the host. There is a danger of undue rationalism if and when we reduce the mystery of Eucharistic change to a this-worldly event. If we were to collapse the heavenly reality into the earthly sign so that the sign gets obliterated, as it were - so that it is no longer clear that we can still speak of the bread being the bread - it becomes difficult to use the language of participation. Participation is something different from obliteration" (p. 69-70).
Thus, Boersma would have us chart a middle path between "two rationalisms" - the crass secularized approach of much liberal theology that treats Jesus as only a model figure and that doubts the reality of miracle on the one hand and the intellectually rigorous transubstantiation theology of Catholicism that still ultimately appeals to reason. Instead, Boersma insists we cannot be so arrogant as to believe we can comprehend exactly what happens when heaven and earth meet and mingle at Our Lord's Table. Throughout the book he glowingly cites George Hunsinger's book 'The Eucharist and Ecumenism: Let Us Keep the Feast' where the Reformed ecumenical theologian proposes that Christians adopt the Eastern Orthodox notion of "transelementation" that DOES insist that Christ is really present in the sacrament but that does not explicitly spell out how Christ's presence enters the bread and wine. Transelementation, perhaps surprisingly, also appears to be the view held by leading Reformers including Peter Martyr Vermigli, Martin Bucer, and Thomas Cranmer.
"Although I think it is fair to say Thomas Aquinas cautiously guards against this danger, we do need to be watchful with transubstantiation. We should not think that the bread gets changed into another, this-worldly substance - a danger that I worry is difficult to avoid especially in the Catholic devotional practice of adoration of the host. There is a danger of undue rationalism if and when we reduce the mystery of Eucharistic change to a this-worldly event. If we were to collapse the heavenly reality into the earthly sign so that the sign gets obliterated, as it were - so that it is no longer clear that we can still speak of the bread being the bread - it becomes difficult to use the language of participation. Participation is something different from obliteration" (p. 69-70).
Thus, Boersma would have us chart a middle path between "two rationalisms" - the crass secularized approach of much liberal theology that treats Jesus as only a model figure and that doubts the reality of miracle on the one hand and the intellectually rigorous transubstantiation theology of Catholicism that still ultimately appeals to reason. Instead, Boersma insists we cannot be so arrogant as to believe we can comprehend exactly what happens when heaven and earth meet and mingle at Our Lord's Table. Throughout the book he glowingly cites George Hunsinger's book 'The Eucharist and Ecumenism: Let Us Keep the Feast' where the Reformed ecumenical theologian proposes that Christians adopt the Eastern Orthodox notion of "transelementation" that DOES insist that Christ is really present in the sacrament but that does not explicitly spell out how Christ's presence enters the bread and wine. Transelementation, perhaps surprisingly, also appears to be the view held by leading Reformers including Peter Martyr Vermigli, Martin Bucer, and Thomas Cranmer.
May 29, 2025
After reading this book, it made me realize how amazing and blessed I am to participate in taking the Eucharist. This book has drawn from a deep well to allow us to see that the Eucharist is not just a piece of bread and wine that symbolizes Christ’s body and body, but something so much more. Highly recommend!
October 3, 2017
The first half contains some helpful ideas about different moments in time being connected sacramentally. (But these ideas are more fully and clearly discussed in Alastair Roberts' A Musical Case for Typological Realism and in the work of Jeremy Begbie.) The second half is disappointing, as Boersma attempts to reason about the relation of the bread to the body of Christ. He adopts a four-fold process of metaphysical change derived from Gregory of Nyssa. In the end, we get this conclusion: “That is to say, when space itself gets reconfigured by earthly bread participating in heavenly manna, we cannot expect rationally to comprehend fully what goes on in the Eucharist.” Really? That's why Paul can ask "it is not?" questions that demand an "Obviously, yes" answer. Boersma has much to say about the Supper being a "mystery" — something which the Bible never calls it. And whenever a book on sacramentology builds up the "mystery" angle, you know it isn't going to end up explaining how the Supper works.
Another telling line was this twisting of Paul's words: “The bread genuinely participates in the body of Christ.” But Paul never says that the bread participates. He says that the bread which we break is a participation in the body of the Messiah. **We** participate by eating the bread. This dislocated center of the entire enterprise of sacramentology necessitates the many epicycles that Boersma pulls from the Christian tradition.
Another telling line was this twisting of Paul's words: “The bread genuinely participates in the body of Christ.” But Paul never says that the bread participates. He says that the bread which we break is a participation in the body of the Messiah. **We** participate by eating the bread. This dislocated center of the entire enterprise of sacramentology necessitates the many epicycles that Boersma pulls from the Christian tradition.
June 25, 2022
Great, I’ll probably need to read it like 5 more times to fully understand but I have just enough to say with Calvin, “Now, if anyone should ask me how this [Christ lifting believers up in the Supper to heaven to commune with him] takes place, I shall not be ashamed to confess that it is a secret too lofty for either my mind to comprehend or my words to declare. And, to speak more plainly, I rather experience than understand it.”
January 11, 2026
In his little work, Eucharistic Participation: The Reconfiguration of Time and Space, Dutch-Canadian theologian Hans Boersma presents two essays that address the relationship between the Eucharist and time and space. In doing so, Boersma argues for a participatory understanding of the Eucharist as opposed to non-participatory views. That is, Boersma affirms that Christians genuinely participate in divine realities when eating the bread and wine (read: body and blood) in the Eucharist.
In his first chapter, Boersma argues for a sacramental understanding of time and sacrifice wherein past, present, and future are not understood to be utterly linear and disjunctive moments, but rather overlapping layers of temporal reality that are able to be brought up into the eternal life of God. Boersma utilizes the binding of Isaac, the crucifixion of Christ, and the Eucharist as the primary example for how three events are able to be genuinely connected in such a way that when Christians partake in the Eucharist, they are participating in the sacrifice of the cross. Since the Eucharist is bound to the cross of Christ, it is essentially sacrificial in meaning. It is important to note that this sacrificial meaning is not in disjunction with or in addition to the sacrifice of the cross; rather, the sacrificial meaning of the Eucharist and the participation believers have with that sacrificial meaning is part and parcel of the ultimate sacrifice in the cross of Christ.
The second chapter focuses on the spatial dimension of the Eucharist by asking how the materials of the bread and wine actually transform into the body and blood of Christ. Boersma appeals to Gregory of Nyssa’s understanding of this process, which is significant for largely two reasons: 1) Gregory focuses less on the transformation of the materials and more on the transformation of the believers who partake in the meal; 2) Gregory never actually outlines an explanation for how the elements transform, they simply due by virtue of Jesus’s promise and the invocation of the Holy Spirit. The latter point is especially important for Boersma who argues that the technical arguments concerning the nature of the transformation of the elements (e.g., transubstantiation, consubstantiation, etc.) are ultimately rationalistic attempts to explain an ultimately mysterious reality. Despite this claim, Boersma does think transubstantiation is a dangerous proposal, and all non-participatory views are unsatisfactory.
In sum, Boersma argues for a participatory understanding of the Eucharist wherein believers genuinely participate in and have union with the risen and ascended Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. This Eucharistic participation is vital to the very essence and life of the church, which is the body and bride of Christ.
Criticisms are light due to the introductory nature of the book; it is only 72 pages long, and so its content is meant for those who are just learning these concepts. Nonetheless, there are two main issues with Boersma’s treatment. 1) the appeal to the Great Tradition is always problematic for several reasons we won’t get into here, but Boersma does so in a few places in this work. 2) Boersma’s understanding of participation is obviously influenced by Neoplatonic metaphysics, which when used by Boersma in this context can have a dangerous tendency to neglect the historical aspect of God’s creation and providence. Boersma, however, does seem to provide means for a genuine historical trajectory in the meaning of Christ’s sacrifice by appealing to the Holy Spirit, but Boersma does not provide enough elaboration on this point to provide explicit defense of the development of signs in redemptive history. To state the criticism concisely: an overly Platonic metaphysic as the foundation for how signs participate in the signified cannot account for the historical development of signs, which the latter is often accounted for by means of invoking typology. The ultimate danger for Boersma’s proposal is an eternal crucifixion in which all earthly, historical signs participate in with no redemptive historical trajectory.
In the end, a participatory understanding of the Eucharist is good and valuable, but Boersma’s proposal contains elements that may not be as valuable as others. In short, his conclusion is laudable, but the means by which he gets there may need to be revisited.
In his first chapter, Boersma argues for a sacramental understanding of time and sacrifice wherein past, present, and future are not understood to be utterly linear and disjunctive moments, but rather overlapping layers of temporal reality that are able to be brought up into the eternal life of God. Boersma utilizes the binding of Isaac, the crucifixion of Christ, and the Eucharist as the primary example for how three events are able to be genuinely connected in such a way that when Christians partake in the Eucharist, they are participating in the sacrifice of the cross. Since the Eucharist is bound to the cross of Christ, it is essentially sacrificial in meaning. It is important to note that this sacrificial meaning is not in disjunction with or in addition to the sacrifice of the cross; rather, the sacrificial meaning of the Eucharist and the participation believers have with that sacrificial meaning is part and parcel of the ultimate sacrifice in the cross of Christ.
The second chapter focuses on the spatial dimension of the Eucharist by asking how the materials of the bread and wine actually transform into the body and blood of Christ. Boersma appeals to Gregory of Nyssa’s understanding of this process, which is significant for largely two reasons: 1) Gregory focuses less on the transformation of the materials and more on the transformation of the believers who partake in the meal; 2) Gregory never actually outlines an explanation for how the elements transform, they simply due by virtue of Jesus’s promise and the invocation of the Holy Spirit. The latter point is especially important for Boersma who argues that the technical arguments concerning the nature of the transformation of the elements (e.g., transubstantiation, consubstantiation, etc.) are ultimately rationalistic attempts to explain an ultimately mysterious reality. Despite this claim, Boersma does think transubstantiation is a dangerous proposal, and all non-participatory views are unsatisfactory.
In sum, Boersma argues for a participatory understanding of the Eucharist wherein believers genuinely participate in and have union with the risen and ascended Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. This Eucharistic participation is vital to the very essence and life of the church, which is the body and bride of Christ.
Criticisms are light due to the introductory nature of the book; it is only 72 pages long, and so its content is meant for those who are just learning these concepts. Nonetheless, there are two main issues with Boersma’s treatment. 1) the appeal to the Great Tradition is always problematic for several reasons we won’t get into here, but Boersma does so in a few places in this work. 2) Boersma’s understanding of participation is obviously influenced by Neoplatonic metaphysics, which when used by Boersma in this context can have a dangerous tendency to neglect the historical aspect of God’s creation and providence. Boersma, however, does seem to provide means for a genuine historical trajectory in the meaning of Christ’s sacrifice by appealing to the Holy Spirit, but Boersma does not provide enough elaboration on this point to provide explicit defense of the development of signs in redemptive history. To state the criticism concisely: an overly Platonic metaphysic as the foundation for how signs participate in the signified cannot account for the historical development of signs, which the latter is often accounted for by means of invoking typology. The ultimate danger for Boersma’s proposal is an eternal crucifixion in which all earthly, historical signs participate in with no redemptive historical trajectory.
In the end, a participatory understanding of the Eucharist is good and valuable, but Boersma’s proposal contains elements that may not be as valuable as others. In short, his conclusion is laudable, but the means by which he gets there may need to be revisited.
January 21, 2025
This one was another gift from the same Anglican priest who gave me The Anglican Way: A Guidebook by Thomas McKenzie. Rather than a volume convincing the evangelical of the strengths and validity of the Anglican tradition, Hans Boersma provides a treatise on the Eucharist that challenges both Roman Catholic and Calvinistic/evangelical perspectives. The back cover of the book starts with an acknowledgement of its goal to challenge specifically evangelicals: "[the book] deals with the importance of the Eucharist, and in the process challenges Protestants (and especially evangelicals) to treat the Eucharist more seriously than they sometimes do. As a Lutheran, I always feel a bit out of place when engaging with Anglican perspectives. Lutherans and Anglicans really seem to talk past each other; they're always dealing with evangelical or Roman arguments rather than the arguments of the other. Still, I was able to glean quite a few helpful insights from this treatise while still having some critiques.
Boersma's first section is all about how the Eucharist reconfigures time in its nature as a sacrifice. Boersma's language here is a bit confusing: he wants to adopt the Roman notions of us participating with Christ's sacrifice on the cross á la Colossians 1:24, and he makes the argument that any sacrifices we complete apart from Christ's sacrifice would imply a works-based salvation. I completely disagree with this; our sacrifices in response to Christ's once-for-all sacrifice are not atoning but are instead sacrifices of thanksgiving and offerings of our very selves to Christ. I do agree with Boersma that we are participating in Christ's sacrifice in the Eucharist, but I would argue this is by our reception of Christ's sacrificed body. On page 27 and others, Boersma argues that the "Binding of Isaac and the Eucharist participate in the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ." He also uses Melito of Sardis' beautiful homily on the Passover as evidence for a similar sacrificial participation of the original Passover. I find this to be a stretch. These two Old Testament events are definitely prefigurations of Christ's sacrifice, but is it really fair or warranted to say they participate in the crucifixion? I don't buy it. I think Boersma is largely conflating participation and prefiguration in this section.
The second section is much more in line with my thinking of the Eucharist. Here, Boersma challenges the memorialist, transubstantiation, and Calvinist views of the real presence for either separating Heaven and Earth too much or over-rationalizing what occurs at the table. He notes that separating the earthly sign from the heavenly sign is a problem because it yields an obliteration of the sign rather than a participation through the sign (70). He humbly admits the need to let the mystery of the Eucharist stay at the forefront. He takes St. Gregory of Nyssa's lead that the Word of God and the Spirit are what make the Body of Christ present in the Eucharist, eschewing a cut-and-dry human explanation.
My biggest frustration with this book is that not once did Boersma mention the chief purpose of the Eucharist: the forgiveness of sins! Jesus clearly says "for the forgiveness of sins" when he gives his disciples Himself in the Upper Room. I'm game to talk about sanctification, union with Christ, offering/sacrifice, participation in Christ's body, and the like, but these all come after the forgiveness of sins. Just like Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller so rightly declares whenever he brings up the Eucharist, we must not forget why Christ instituted His Blessed Sacrament: to forgive us our sins through the deliverance of His crucified, resurrected, ascended body and blood to us.
Boersma's first section is all about how the Eucharist reconfigures time in its nature as a sacrifice. Boersma's language here is a bit confusing: he wants to adopt the Roman notions of us participating with Christ's sacrifice on the cross á la Colossians 1:24, and he makes the argument that any sacrifices we complete apart from Christ's sacrifice would imply a works-based salvation. I completely disagree with this; our sacrifices in response to Christ's once-for-all sacrifice are not atoning but are instead sacrifices of thanksgiving and offerings of our very selves to Christ. I do agree with Boersma that we are participating in Christ's sacrifice in the Eucharist, but I would argue this is by our reception of Christ's sacrificed body. On page 27 and others, Boersma argues that the "Binding of Isaac and the Eucharist participate in the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ." He also uses Melito of Sardis' beautiful homily on the Passover as evidence for a similar sacrificial participation of the original Passover. I find this to be a stretch. These two Old Testament events are definitely prefigurations of Christ's sacrifice, but is it really fair or warranted to say they participate in the crucifixion? I don't buy it. I think Boersma is largely conflating participation and prefiguration in this section.
The second section is much more in line with my thinking of the Eucharist. Here, Boersma challenges the memorialist, transubstantiation, and Calvinist views of the real presence for either separating Heaven and Earth too much or over-rationalizing what occurs at the table. He notes that separating the earthly sign from the heavenly sign is a problem because it yields an obliteration of the sign rather than a participation through the sign (70). He humbly admits the need to let the mystery of the Eucharist stay at the forefront. He takes St. Gregory of Nyssa's lead that the Word of God and the Spirit are what make the Body of Christ present in the Eucharist, eschewing a cut-and-dry human explanation.
My biggest frustration with this book is that not once did Boersma mention the chief purpose of the Eucharist: the forgiveness of sins! Jesus clearly says "for the forgiveness of sins" when he gives his disciples Himself in the Upper Room. I'm game to talk about sanctification, union with Christ, offering/sacrifice, participation in Christ's body, and the like, but these all come after the forgiveness of sins. Just like Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller so rightly declares whenever he brings up the Eucharist, we must not forget why Christ instituted His Blessed Sacrament: to forgive us our sins through the deliverance of His crucified, resurrected, ascended body and blood to us.
October 26, 2025
This little work has enriched my understanding of the Lord’s Supper and the nature of the church, as well as showed me how space and time shape the way we reason theologically. These two essays are an extended exegesis of 1 Corinthians 10:16-17 as Boersma shows us how the Jesus reconfigures space and time through his Passion. In the Supper, we truly and really participate in the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ. The Eucharist is not another sacrifice, but a participation in Jesus’s historical death. Boersma lays out a real presence view of the Supper for Protestant Christians. Boersma also makes strong, clear, and compelling claims about how Christ IS the church, his body, and that the Eucharist makes the church. The Supper reconfigures time in that we can participate in the historical event of the Passion in the present, and it reconfigures space because the Supper unites heavenly and earthly realities.
Excellent book! I agree with Boersma’s overall interpretation of 1 Corinthians 10:16-17, even if there are some tertiary exegetical decisions he makes in 1 Corinthians 8-10 that I disagree with. Highly recommend if you want to further appreciate what happens in the Lord’s Supper!
Excellent book! I agree with Boersma’s overall interpretation of 1 Corinthians 10:16-17, even if there are some tertiary exegetical decisions he makes in 1 Corinthians 8-10 that I disagree with. Highly recommend if you want to further appreciate what happens in the Lord’s Supper!
June 23, 2024
This book is actually two shorter essays written on the nature of the Eucharist. In the first essay, the author Hans Boersma writes about the Eucharist being a sacrifice, explaining that it is a participation in Christ’s sacrifice. He also discusses the concept of sacramental time, in which both the binding of Isaac in Genesis and a Eucharist today can both participate in the sacrifice of Christ since all time is in God. In the second essay, Boersma discusses the real presence in the Eucharist, explaining how we participate in the body of Christ. I especially liked how Boersma points out that the purpose of a sacrament isn’t so that we can fully and completely explain it in rational terms, but that it draws us into a mystery that will work in us in ways we might not be able to rationally explain.
July 7, 2023
Excellent book analysing the mystery of the eucharist and some of the downfalls of an unbalanced interpretation of it. That said, it is not exhaustive - it is more descriptive than argumentative. I would like to see a longer book-length treatment that flushes out the history, exegesis, and arguments for and against the Spiritual Presence / Transelementation view more fully.
June 13, 2019
Real Presence explored
This is 2 essays quite academic in nature that look to explore the concept of Christ's presence in the Eucharist. Ultimately, it is a mystery, but good work on both the horizontal (time) and vertical (space) aspects.
This is 2 essays quite academic in nature that look to explore the concept of Christ's presence in the Eucharist. Ultimately, it is a mystery, but good work on both the horizontal (time) and vertical (space) aspects.
September 10, 2024
I found this book very helpful for understand communion in a more profound way. My only problem is that I wish he would have taken more time to explain what he means and slow down for a layerson like myself. Overall, it really enriched me
December 5, 2024
Rev. Dr. Hans Boersma does a fanstastic job of providing the true Anglican, understanding of what happens when we partake in the Eucharist. A fantastic read for anybody who wishes to get a better grasp on the Blessed Sacrament, and not only its beauty, but also its mystery.
September 3, 2025
This book helped me to see how the sacrament of communion is more than merely a symbol pointing back to something, rather by it we are joined to Christ, we participate in his death a resurrection as he continually offers himself for us on our behalf!
September 5, 2025
The best articulation of the eucharist I’ve encountered.
December 31, 2025
Fantastic pair of essays on the nature of the eucharist.
July 17, 2016
Past, present, & future; heaven & earth meet as cruciform in Eucharist because the Eternal Word participates with us there.
Excellent little book & a quick read.
This is an excellent little book that explores the trans-dimensional nature of Holy Communion in the Reformed tradition.
Excellent little book & a quick read.
This is an excellent little book that explores the trans-dimensional nature of Holy Communion in the Reformed tradition.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews