Memorialism
A view held among orthodox Christians
The view that the Lord's Supper is chiefly a memorial meal, in which believers remember Christ's death and proclaim it, without any special presence of Christ in the Supper.
Also called: memorial view, memorialist, Zwinglian view
What it means
Memorialists stress Jesus' words "do this in remembrance of Me". In the Supper the church remembers Christ's death, proclaims it until He comes, examines itself, and renews its commitment to Him and to one another. The bread and cup are signs pointing to His body given and blood shed. Christ is present with His people as He always is by His Spirit, but not in a special way in the Supper itself.
The view is often associated with the Zurich reformer Ulrich Zwingli, though his own teaching was fuller than the popular version. It is common today among Baptist and evangelical churches.
Those who hold the spiritual-presence view agree that the Supper is a memorial, but think it is more: Paul calls the cup "a participation in the blood of Christ". Both views reject any bodily change in the elements, and both are held by churches that confess the same gospel. The 1689 London Baptist Confession itself teaches the spiritual-presence view.
In Scripture
Jesus gave the bread with the command: do this in remembrance of Me.
Paul twice repeats the call to do this in remembrance of Christ.
Eating and drinking proclaims the Lord's death until He comes.
It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.
Where it comes up
On this site: Lord's Supper
Related terms
Spiritual presenceA view held among orthodox Christians
The view that in the Lord's Supper believers truly feed on Christ, not bodily, but spiritually by faith through the work of the Holy Spirit.
Real presenceA view held among orthodox Christians
The teaching that Christ's true body and blood are bodily present in, with, and under the bread and wine of the Lord's Supper, as Lutherans confess.
OrdinanceTerm
A rite Christ commanded His church to observe; Baptists commonly use the word for baptism and the Lord's Supper, stressing obedience to Christ's appointment.