“This is an important book on a sensitive topic. It offers a fresh approach to a seemingly intractable problem in ecumenical relations and is well researched and judicious in its judgments. It will be a significant new resource for ecumenical dialogue.”—John Cavadini, professor of theology and director of the McGrath Institute for Church Life, University of Notre Dame

“It is a great scandal that the Eucharist, the sacrament of Christian unity, has been the occasion for fracture and division in the body of Christ. At the heart of many of the controversies has been the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation. Brett Salkeld’s book is the best ecumenical study of this topic to appear in years. He asks Catholics to consider what the Church actually teaches on the subject, and invites Protestants to wonder if their own eucharistic doctrines aren’t in fact closer to transubstantiation than they’ve been led to believe. Agree with Salkeld or not, his book is a model of charitable and intelligent ecumenical theology.”—Joseph Mangina, Wycliffe College, Toronto School of Theology

“I learned so much from this book. Salkeld boldly touches the third rail of ecumenism: the doctrine of transubstantiation, the very mention of which is bound to raise the hackles of both Protestants and (increasingly since Vatican II) Catholics. He defends the startling suggestion that Lutherans, Reformed, and Catholics can find in a proper understanding of ‘transubstantiation’ the position on real presence that each yearns to uphold. As he shows, the meaning of the term had become obscured by the sixteenth century, just as it largely has today. Salkeld writes with love and admiration for his fellow Christians. May this wonderful book enrich Christian unity as we approach the mysteries of the Lord’s table.”—Matthew Levering, James N. and Mary D. Perry Jr. Chair of Theology, Mundelein Seminary

“In December chill the laborer hastens home at dusk to the hearth. So Brett Salkeld’s work in this time of ‘ecumenical winter’ warms the reader with the glow of ecumenically intentional dogmatics. If Protestants still wish to douse the fire with a bucket of cold water to the effect that Rome has never heard the witness of the Reformation, Salkeld’s careful and sympathetic reading of sixteenth-century eucharistic theology, like Elijah’s fire on Mount Carmel, vaporizes the objection.”—Paul R. Hinlicky, Tise Professor of Lutheran Studies, Roanoke College; Docent, Evanjelická Bohoslovecká Fakulta, Univerzita Komenského, Bratislava, Slovakia