Real presence of Christ in the Eucharist

=== Zwinglian ===
{{Main|Theology of Huldrych Zwingli#Eucharist}}
{{further|Anabaptist theology#Lord's Supper}}
[[Huldrych Zwingli]], a Swiss [[Protestant Reformers|Reformer]], taught:<ref name="Gerhart1894">{{cite book |last1=Gerhart |first1=Emanuel Vogel |title=Institutes of the Christian Religion |date=1894 |publisher=Funk & Wagnalls |page=618}}</ref>

{{quotation|We believe that Christ is truly present in the Lord's Supper; yea, we believe that there is no communion without the presence of Christ. ({{lang|la|italics=no|Christum credimus vere esse in coena, immo non credimus esse Domini coenam nisi Christus adsit}}.) This is the proof: Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. How much more is He present where the whole congregation is assembled to His honour! But that His body is literally eaten is far from the truth and the nature of faith. It is contrary to the truth, because He Himself says: I am no more in the world, and the flesh profiteth nothing, that is to eat, as the Jews then believed and the Papists still believe. It is contrary to the nature of faith, I mean the holy and true faith, because faith embraces love, fear of God, and reverence, which abhors such carnal and gross eating, as much as any one would shrink from eating his beloved son. ... We believe that the true body of Christ is eaten in the communion in a sacramental and spiritual manner by the religious, believing and pious heart, as also Chrysostom taught.<ref name="Gerhart1894"/>}}

Those who adhere to the Zwinglian view, do so at Jesus's words about doing this in "remembrance" rather than any transformation or any physical presence. Rather, Christ is really present at the thanksgiving, and in the memory. Zwingli's words that the "true body of Christ is eaten in a sacramental and spiritual manner" is understood in a way where the physical objects and actions are the spiritual reminder of what Jesus had done, that He has instituted. This comes from the belief that the historical understanding of the Early Church taught that sacraments are done in "contemplation of faith" as the "proclamation of salvation and the strengthening of faith in the hearts of believers".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/trevin-wax/luther-vs-zwingli-3-zwingli-on-the-lords-supper/|title=Zwingli on the Lord's Supper|date=12 February 2008 }}</ref> [[General Baptists]],<ref name="Southern Baptist Convention"/><ref name="nationalbaptist.com"/> [[Anabaptists]],<ref name="Balmer2002"/> the [[Plymouth Brethren]],<ref name="Balmer2002"/> some [[Nondenominational Christianity|non-denominational Churches]]<ref name="University of Virginia Library"/> see Communion (also called the [[Eucharist|Lord's Supper]] or the Lord's Table) as signifying the body and blood of Jesus, a [[Memorialism|memorial]] of the [[Last Supper]] and the [[Passion (Christianity)|Passion]] with symbolic and meaningful elements,<ref name="BalmerWinner2002">{{cite book|last1=Balmer|first1=Randall Herbert|last2=Winner|first2=Lauren F.|title=Protestantism in America|url=https://archive.org/details/protestantismame00balm_593|url-access=limited|year=2002|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=9780231111300|page=[https://archive.org/details/protestantismame00balm_593/page/n42 26]}}</ref> which is done by the ordinance of Jesus. This view is known as Memorialism or the Zwinglian view, as it was taught by Zwingli, a Swiss Reformer. Those who hold to the memorial understanding deny the strong sense of Transubstantiation as articulated by [[Lanfranc]] in the 11th century, arguing more akin to [[Berengarius]] who was a symbolist. It is pointed out that while early [[Church Fathers]] used the language of real presence, this is not similar to a hard understanding of Transubstantiation. Rather, interpreting in the context of other early Church Father writings, those who emphasize the symbolic nature of the Eucharist, point out the symbolic language used by [[Tertullian]], [[Cyprian]], and others, noting a differentiation between the "real presence of Christ" being used to mean a bodily presence.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://blog.tms.edu/did-the-early-church-teach-transubstantiation|title=Did the Early Church Teach Transubstantiation?}}</ref>{{fcn|date=April 2023}} Further it is understood that the dispute arose much later, in the 9th and 11th centuries, about the nature of the Eucharist.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.reasonablefaith.org/podcasts/defenders-podcast-series-2/s2-doctrine-of-the-church/doctrine-of-the-church-part-5/|title=Doctrine of the Church (Part 5) &#124; Reasonable Faith}}</ref>{{fcn|date=April 2023}}

Anabaptists affirm that communion is a memorial and locate the presence of Jesus not in the elements themselves, but teach that the "mystery of communion with the living Christ in his Supper comes into being by the power of the Spirit, dwelling in and working through the collected members of Christ’s Body".<ref name="Snyder2006">{{cite web |last1=Snyder |first1=Arnold |title=Was the Bread Only Bread, and the Wine Only Wine? Sacramental Theology in Five Anabaptist Hymns |url=https://uwaterloo.ca/grebel/publications/conrad-grebel-review/issues/fall-2006/was-bread-only-bread-and-wine-only-wine-sacramental-theology |publisher=[[Conrad Grebel University College]] |access-date=28 April 2022 |date=2006 |archive-date=7 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220707015534/https://uwaterloo.ca/grebel/publications/conrad-grebel-review/issues/fall-2006/was-bread-only-bread-and-wine-only-wine-sacramental-theology |url-status=dead }}</ref> As such, in celebrations of the Eucharist, "Anabaptist congregations looked to the living Christ in their hearts and in their midst, who transformed members and elements together into a mysterious communion, creating his Body in many members, ground like grains and crushed like grapes, into one bread and one drink."<ref name="Snyder2006"/>