First Principles: Semantical, Metaphysical, Theological

August 1-5, 2022, Lisbon

You can view the program for SEHI’s Lisbon conference on First Principles here.

The Metaphysics and Theology of the Eucharist

September 1-4, 2021, Budapest

Overview

The lectures of this conference investigated the “chicken-and-egg” question that frequently recurred at the Budapest meeting: what drives large-scale conceptual changes like the doctrine of the Eucharist? Changing semantical or metaphysical intuitions, or the reinterpretation of theological principles? The answer is probably the interaction of these principles in their various applications; but how does this happen and why? The lectures, which sought answers to such questions in concrete historical cases, will serve as the material for volume 2 of the Proceedings of SEHI.

Overview

The most mind-boggling sacrament of the Christian faith, also referred to as the Sacrament of the Altar, is the Eucharist: in its Roman Catholic interpretation, the conversion of the substance of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ for Holy Communion. The challenge of providing a rational interpretation of this doctrine of faith proved to be one of the most contentious issues in the Western history of ideas, apparently going against self-evident metaphysical principles (requiring accidents existing without a substance, and a body in several places at the same time, etc.), and dividing schools of thought, indeed, eventually, warring religious factions. The conference was devised to address both the metaphysical, theoretical issues involved in this challenge and the historical theological developments of how meeting this challenge played out first in the schools and even later in religious schisms, leading to the paradigmatic shift from medieval to modern forms of thought.

The conference, organized by the Research Center for the History of Ideas (RCHI – “Archie”) of the Institute for Hungarian Research (IHR) served as “a scholarly prelude” to the events of the 52nd International Eucharistic Congress in Budapest, 5-12 September 2021.

Below you’ll find the first video in a playlist presenting interviews of the conference participants, as well as full videos of the presentations.