Having Jesus for Dinner: Community or Cannibalism
Can Christians Reset the Table for a New Expression of Jesus’ “Holy” Meal?
- Preaching & Worship
- Biblical Studies & Commentaries
- Publisher: Wipf and Stock
- Published: 2023
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Publisher's Description
Most Christians claim to know to Jesus as a friend or guide, as an inspiration and model. We adore him and even worship him. But what happens when you have him for dinner? This book explores the development of the meal practice of Jesus's followers as they move from having Jesus as the guest at their table, to having Jesus as the main course. Most believers don't give it a second thought now, but that is a dramatic change. Initially Jesus is the host at a common shared meal that signaled acceptance to all. In a few short years, Christians began "eating" Jesus as an act of devotion. "Jesus--the bread of life. Jesus--the true vine." How did this the shift from community to cannibalism take place? Does it make sense relative to Jesus's stated mission? And what have been the consequences of taking what began as ordinary shared supper and turning it into a symbolic and ritualized sacrament? Join Christopher Levan as we go from bread recipes to first-century meal practice. We'll recline with other disciples and relive the joys of having Jesus as the host and ask if we can reset the table of the Lord for the twenty-first century.
Endorsements (2)
“Start with handfuls of Jesus’s pithy words and daring actions. Stir in two millennia of Christian tradition. Season with stories and characters from the author’s remarkable life and ministry. Leaven with a passion for a new kind of meal at the heart of Christian community, and you get Christopher Levan’s urgent call for change—plus actual recipes for everything from Bannock to croissants! Tasty. Nourishing. Inspiring.”
“Most Christian churches have a table in the front. But many times that table is not to eat the shared food, but to eat a memory, a devotion. As daring as ever, Christopher Levan reminds us in this book that a table was where it all began, but also where everything can end. Eat with Jesus to teach and challenge us, or swallow Jesus to shut up? That is the question.”
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