THE PROVENANCE OF JOHN CALVIN'S EMPHASIS ON THE ...

The sursum corda concerns one's disposition toward the elements of the sacramental
celebration. One is not to fixate on the bread and wine, as if they were "properly"
Christ, as if Christ were "locally present" in or under them. 94 Rather one is to rise by
faith, by the symbol, to heaven. Says Calvin,
if we are lifted up to heaven with our eyes and minds, to seek Christ there in the
glory of his Kingdom, as the symbols invite us to him in his wholeness, so
under the symbol of bread we shall be fed by his body, under the symbol of
wine we shall separately drink his blood, to enjoy him at last in his wholeness. 95
Since the Lord's Supper is, as Calvin puts it elsewhere, "a heavenly action, or a
kind of vehicle which carries [true worshipers] above the world," 96 at the outset of its
celebration, those who would participate are enjoined to "lift up" their hearts and minds.
They are enjoined to exercise faith. In the main, given his predominant patterns of
speech, Calvin speaks of believers being raised up not by the Holy Spirit, as so many
are wont to read him, 97 but by faith. 98 "Faith," says Calvin in the Optima ineundae
habere sursum corda. Ipsa quoque scriptura, praeterquam quod Christi ascensionem diligenter nobis
enarrat, qua corporis sui praesentiam a conspectu nostro consuetudineque subduxit, quo nobis omnem de
eo carnalem cogitationem excutiat, quoties ipsius meminit, mentibus sursum erigi iubet, et ipsum in coelo
quaerere sedentem in patris dextera (Col. 3, 1)" (CO 2:1039).
94 See Inst. 1559 LCC 4.17.15. CO 2:1014.
95 Inst. 1559 LCC 4.17.18. CO 2:1016-17.
96 Tracts and Treatises 2:519. CO 9:479.
97 See, e.g., Paul Rorem, Calvin and Bullinger on the Lord's Supper (Bramcote: Grove Books,
1989), 11 and 50; A. Mitchell Hunter, The Teaching of Calvin, 2nd ed. (London: James Clarke, 1950),
187. On ascent, see also Christopher B. Kaiser, "Climbing Jacob's Ladder: John Calvin and the Early
Church on our Eucharistic Ascent to Heaven," Scottish Journal of Theology 56 (2003), 247-67.
98 This is most expressly stated in his Maniere de interroguer les Enfans qu'on veut recevoir a la
Cene de nostre Seigneur Iesus Christ, 1553. As no standard English translation is available, the entire
dialogue on the Lord's Supper is rendered here in French as it is found in CO 6:159-160:
LE MINISTRE. Et la Cene que nous signifie-elle?
L'ENFANT. Elle nous signifie que par la communication du corps et du sang de nostre Seigneur
Iesus Christ,
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