Book Review: The Eucharist

Intersecting strands of
feminist, post-colonial, and post-modern theory together with ritual
theory and a practical theology of the Eucharist, Bieler and
Schottroff have produced a stunning work that disperses the wonder
and power of the Eucharist as crumbs to the hillsides of life.

The extent to which Bieler and
Schottroff pull the Eucharist into the quiet places of Christian
theology creates a feeling of blowing the dust off an old book and
reading from it once more. Theses ideas are not new, Bieler and
Schottroff seem to unconsciously reminding us, they were just left by
the wayside.

To
the extent to which this is a vary scholarly book, a
textbook even, precludes me from attempting to way in on the

scholastic side of things; reading this book has deeply practical
reasons, if not to just remember what the whole reality of the
Eucharist is in the first place.

The
Eucharist is, we often forget, is a meal that finds Heaven and Earth
intersecting. The bodies of the earth, which need both physical and
spiritual bread, are intersecting with the heavenly dream of the
coming resurrection. When we decide not to bring our realities,
realities of war, hunger, over-abundance, economies, memory, hatred,
love, pain, and suffering, to the table, we are diminishing the
presence of Christ, a presence which we honor, serve, love, and hope
will come again to resurrect this world and bring a coming kingdom.

This
book reminds us that in the practice of a 2,000 year old ritual ideas
becoming increasingly complex, and indeed cannot be separated from
the tension created in a world that is in darkness and the
eschatological hope of a kingdom that will come in glory and light.

—-
The Eucharist: Bodies, Bread, and Resurrection
Andrea Butler & Luise Schottroff
Fortress Press