Resources On The Lord’s Supper

Holy communion (the Lord’s Supper, the Eucharist) is one of the two sacraments instituted by Christ (Matt 26:26–29; Mark 14:22–25; Luke 22:14–23; 1 Cor 11:23–34). In the Reformed tradition whereas Baptism is regarded as the sacrament of initiation into the visible church, the Supper is understood as the sacrament of nutrition (so, Petrus van Mastricht). It is for baptized believers who have made a credible profession of faith before the elders and who have been received as communicant members. There are essentially two views of the Supper present in the broader Reformed tradition. We might distinguish between a higher view and a lower view. Calvin, Beza, Vermigli, as well as the Heidelberg Catechism, the Belgic Confession, and the Westminster Standards articulate a higher view, in which believers are said to be fed, in the Supper, on the body and blood of Christ, through faith, by the mysterious work of the Spirit. The lower view, which is associated with the earlier Zürich Reformation and some American Presbyterians (e.g., Charles Hodge), tends to think of the Supper less in terms of an event in which believers are fed on the body of Christ and more as an event of remembering. The memorial (to the degree that is an accurate adjective) view began to fade already during the life of Heinrich Bullinger (1504–75), who formed a bridge between the earlier Zürich view and the later view represented by J. H. Heidegger at the end of the 17th century.

Table of Contents

  1. Select Bibliography
  2. Heidelblog Articles
  3. Podcasts
  4. Quotations

1. Select Bibliography

  • Bèze Théodore de. A Clear and Simple Treatise on the Lord’s Supper.  Translated by David C Noe. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Reformation Heritage Books, 2016.
  • Billings, J. Todd. Remembrance, Communion, and Hope: Rediscovering the Gospel at the Lord’s Table. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2018.
  • Calvin, John. Short Treatise on the Lord’s Supper (1541).
  • Clark, R. Scott. “The Evangelical Fall from the Means of Grace” in The Compromised Church, ed. John Armstrong (Wheaton: Crossway, 1998), 133–47.
  • Gerrish, Brian A. Grace and Gratitude: The Eucharistic Theology of John Calvin. United Kingdom: Fortress Press, 1993 (reprint).
  • Keddie, Gordon J. The Lord’s Supper Is a Celebration of Grace: What the Bible Teaches About Communion. Darlington: Evangelical Press, 2000.
  • Keister, Lane B. “Intinction: An Historical, Exegetical, and Systemic-Theological Examination,” Mid-America Theological Journal  29 (2018): 149–172.
  • Kolb, Robert, and Carl R Trueman. Between Wittenberg and Geneva: Lutheran and Reformed Theology in Conversation. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, a division of Baker Publishing Group, 2017.
  • Letham, Robert. The Lord’s Supper: Eternal Word in Broken Bread. Phillipsburg, N.J.: P & R Pub, 2001.
  • Mathison, Keith A. Given for You: Reclaiming Calvin’s Doctrine of the Lord’s Supper. Phillipsburg, N.J.: P & R Pub, 2002.
  • Mathison, Keith A. The Lord’s Supper: Answers to Common Questions. Orlando, Florida: Reformation Trust, 2019.
  • Maclean, Malcolm. The Lord’s Supper. Fearn, Ross-shire, Scotland: Mentor, 2009.
  • Nevin, John Williamson, The Mystical Presence: And the Doctrine of the Reformed Church on the Lord’s Supper. Mercersburg Theology Study Series, V. 1. Eugene, Or.: Wipf & Stock, 2012.
  • Old, Hughes Oliphant, and Jon D Payne. Holy Communion: In the Piety of the Reformed Church. Powder Springs, GA: Tolle Lege Press, 2013.
  • Payne, Jon D.  John Owen on the Lord’s Supper. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 2004.
  • Riddlebarger, Kim. “The Reformation of the SupperThe Reformation of the Supper” in R. Scott Clark and Joel Kim, ed. Always Reformed: Essays in Honor of W. Robert Godfrey (Escondido: Westminster Seminary California, 2010), 192–207.
  • Riggs, John W. The Lord’s Supper in the Reformed Tradition: An Essay on the Mystical True Presence. 1st ed. Columbia Series in Reformed Theology. Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2015.
  • Venema, Cornelis P. Children at the Lord’s Table?: Assessing the Case for Paedocommunion. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Reformation Heritage Books, 2009.
  • Venema, Cornelis P. The Lord’s Supper and the “Popish Mass”: A Study of Heidelberg Catechism Q & A 80. Explorations in Reformed Confessional Theology. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Reformation Heritage Books, 2015.
  • Watson, Thomas. The Lord’s Supper. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 2004.
  • Waters, Guy Prentiss, and J. Ligon Duncan, eds. Children and the Lord’s Supper: Let a Man Examine Himself. Fearn, UK: Mentor, 2011.

2. Heidelblog Articles

3. Podcasts

4. Heidelquotes

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