Dynamics and Transubstantiation in Leibniz's Systema Theologicum

Abstract

Dynamics and Transubstantiation in Leibniz's SystemaTheologicum DANIEL C. FOUKE 1. INTRODUCTION FROMTHE X66OSto the end of his life, two of Leibniz's primary concerns were to reunify the churches and to provide a defense of the rationality of Christian theism. Both projects require, among other things, some account of the "mysteries " of the faith. The "mysteries" are doctrines, like those of the Trinity, the Incarnation, and transubstantiation, which are revealed and must be believed, but which yet remain beyond the power of reason to either demonstrate or comprehend., The epistemic status of these mysteries is therefore highly problematic : how can one believe in a proposition which cannot be understood, and if such belief were possible, then how could it be defended against charges of irrationality? Leibniz approaches this problem by interpreting the mysteries as pr/mafac/e impossibilities. The job of the theologian and apologist is then to demonstrate, through metaphysical analysis, that these mysteries are genuine logical possibilities which transcend the natural order, but which may be realized at least through the power of God. In this way, it is possible to understand and believe the claims of the Church, even though faith still has its role, because reason is helpless to demonstrate that such mysteries actually occur." Among the mysteries of the faith which Leibniz discusses, there is none to which he devoted more labor than the Eucharist. Leibniz's lifelong project of ' See Denzinger, "SystematicIndex of Dogmaticand Moral Matters," Ib, in The Sourcesof CatholkDograa, trans. RoyDeferrari (St.Louisand London: B. Herder, 1957). 9For an interesting and thorough discussionof the epistemologicalstatus of the Christian mysteries,and howLeibnizconfrontsthisproblemwitha theory oflanguage,seeMarceloDascal, "Reasonand the Mysteriesof Faith: Leibnizon the Meaningof ReligiousDiscourse,"in Le//m~" Language,S/gasand Thought(Amsterdamand Philadelphia:John Benjamins,1987). [45] 46 JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY 32:1 JANUARY 1994 reunifying the churches forced him to give some discussion of this bone of contention among Christians.s It has been shown elsewhere that the early attempts to demonstrate the possibility of transubstantiation (which were part of Leibniz's effort to reunify the churches) exercised a significant influence on the development of Leibniz's mature metaphysics.4 While Leibniz continued to work for reunification of the churches during his middle period,5 there are important changes in both his explanation of transubstantiation and the role of this explanation in his metaphysical development. In his early period Leibniz concentrated on the Eucharist as one of the central puzzles to be solved in a first step toward reunification of the churches and a defense of Christian rationality. He experimented with a variety of metaphysical systems which would allow him to account intelligibly for substantial change in the Host, and was finally led to place primary emphasis on minds as the only genuine sources of substantiality. This was a significant step towards the metaphysics of the mid-168os and the 169os. Leibniz again turns to a discussion of transubstantiation in the Systerna Theologicurn and the correspondence with Pellison 6 and Bossuet, the Bishop of sAfter Boineburg's death, Leibniz reveals his view that transubstantiation is of central metaphysical importance in a letter to DukeJohann Friedrich into whose service Leibniz had entered. In this letter of 1679 Leibniz proposes the revival of a project he had earlier pursued for Boineburg, a work to be entitled Dmon.arat/onesCaato/kat. This work was to be written in three parts, the first giving demonstrations of the existence of God and the soul, the second giving proofs of the possibilities of the mysteries, and the third dealing with the relations between the Church and the state. It was to be accompanied by a preface which would include a new logic dealing with Utheart of weighing probabilities and discovering to which of two sides the balance tips," and was also to indude a treatment of metaphysics clarifying the notions of'God, the soul, person, and the nature of substance and accidents." In particular the metaphysical discussion would aim to reestablish and intelligibly explain "the substantial forms that the Cartesians claim to have destroyed as inexplicable chimeras, to the prejudice of our religion, whose mysteries would be only impossibilities if the nature of bodies consists...