As someone who did not grow up in a Christian tradition, the concept of Holy Communion has always seemed very odd to me. I can understand completely why it is a spiritual process that people can connect with, but the idea of transmogrification (when Jesus' blood and the wine exist simultaneously in the same object, as well as the wafer and his body) has always been confusing. Now, after reading this article, it makes a lot more sense. Imagining two things inhabiting the same item, indeed, blending them, provides a physical manifestation of a concept that is hard to understand, especially in historical context and the desire of modern Christians to connect with Jesus.
My personal interpretation of this part of the Bible, where Jesus gives his disciples bread and wine during the Last Supper and says, "Take this and eat, for this is my body" and "Drink of this, all of you, for this is my blood", is that it was meant to be a metaphorical suggestion. However, the fact that this ritual still exists and is held to be so important and spiritually significant by Christians around the world (and has been for centuries!) speaks to the power of Conceptual Blending and how it helps people to understand the world. This major facet of many Christian traditions is a great example of how Conceptual Blending helps people to interpret concepts which may be hard to understand as part of their own lives in a tangible sense.
This is very well put. I was still a little fuzzy on what the idea of conceptual blending but this helped clear it up for me. It is interesting to look at why/how we do certain things (especially in religion) and I think the idea of blending opens a lot of doors for possible answers.
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