The writing of this book was inspired by a two-fold correspondence with a priest friend. The two issues that he raised were: first, the decision by the Vatican to recognize as both valid and licit the use of that version of the Anaphora1 of Addai and Mari which has no obvious "words of consecration"; and second, my description of the term "Transubstantiation" as contentious. I had not written anything focussed on the doctrine of the Eucharist previously, because I believed that this topic has been covered very thoroughly by many other writers of greater scholarship than myself. However, it now seems to me that I do have something worthwhile to contribute to the topic. This book covers the theology, philosophy and spirituality of the Eucharist. I believe that it is impossible to separate these from another without doing violence to one's appreciation of and participation in the Eucharist. The structure of the book is as follows. I begin with a review of the Scriptural texts pertinent to the Eucharist and propose a novel theory regarding its institution. I then consider a variety of Patristic texts which are advanced by Roman Catholic, Byzantine Orthodox and Protestant disputants as favouring their particular Eucharistic theologies. Next, I present a theological analysis of the Eucharist as the three-fold rational sacrifice which fulfils the Aaronic worship ritual. I then discuss the controversy over the "form of the Eucharist" before discussing Eucharistic Ontology from a Platonist perspective. Finally, I discuss Eucharistic spirituality and critique the revolutionary changes made to the Roman Liturgy in the name of pope Paul VI.
About the Author: Stephen Lovatt was born in 1958 in Stoke-on-Trent, England. The jolt of his mother's death when he was fourteen made him resolve to become a member of the Methodist Church. He came into the possession of a strange little book called "The Testament of Light" in about 1974. This introduced him for the first time to Plato, Whichcote, Glanville, Mill, Blake, Chesterton, Julian of Norwich, Marcus Aurelius, Nietzsche and The Cloud of Unknowing. It was about this time that he first encountered with Catholicism, in the writings of Teillard de Chardin. He was accepted to read physics at Trinity College in 1976. While at Cambridge, he discovered the works of Cardinal Newman and as a result was received into the Catholic Church in 1979. After graduating, he worked for about ten years in the electronics industry. During this period he became familiar with the works of Karl Popper and developed an interest in epistemology and the basis of Quantum Mechanics. In 1990, he returned to academic studies researching in relativistic quantum mechanics and multiple scattering theory at Bristol University. At this time he was introduced to the works of Ayn Rand, the American founder of the Objectivist school of philosophy and developed an interest in teleology and ethics. After obtaining his doctorate in Physics, he returned to the electronics industry, before conducting a stint of post-doctoral research in the fields of Density Functional Theory of the Physics of Liquids. At about this time he discovered the works of Plato. In 2002 he began two years of teacher training, after which he was appointed lecturer in electronics and mathematics at the Army School of Electrical and Aeronautical Engineering. He published his first non-fiction book "New Skins for Old wine: Plato's Wisdom for Today's world" in 2009.