Whose Eucharist? Eucharistic Identity as Historical Subject

Through the experiences of a medieval historian and the experiences which have led to her engagement with the Eucharist in the Middle Ages this paper traces some of the ways in which medieval people assumed or discarded identities through their relationships with the Eucharist. The many ways in which the image encompassing an incarnate God in a wheaten disc allowed individual and groups to assert selfhood, difference and specificity are considered through examples of liturgical, mystical and theological relationships, articulations, of the Eucharist. The centrality of Jews as affirmers of Eucharistic truth in late medieval culture through the rejection and violence attributed to them is offered as a necessary facet of the Eucharist's suggestive possibilities. Eucharist is shown as a symbol of interiority and intrinsic value, opposed to Jewish literality and misrecognition of value, ideas which created a link between talk about the Eucharist and discussion of usury. Lastly, some of the historical interests of Jewish writers in the historical links between Jews and the Eucharist are explored.