Fifteen years of dialogue compressed into 23 Scripture-packed chapters on the Real Presence and the Sacrifice of the Mass. Where Dave Armstrong’s earlier books cover the basics of Catholic eucharistic doctrine, this one is the higher-level course — “Catholic Eucharist 0201,” as he puts it — for readers ready to go past is the Eucharist symbolic.
Inside: the special presence of God in physical objects before the Incarnation, the parallel between doubting disciples in John 6 and modern Protestant denials of the Real Presence, the exclusion of non-Catholics from Catholic communion, St. Augustine’s simultaneous realism and symbolism, John Calvin against the Church Fathers, the Protestant “idolatry” charge, and a substantial section drawing the Sacrifice of the Mass from Scripture alone.
Heavy use of Protestant scholarly sources throughout — Armstrong corroborates with Lutheran, Reformed, and Anglican historians, not just Catholic ones. Best read after his introductory eucharistic chapters in A Biblical Defense of Catholicism or The Catholic Verses.
