This book is all about how to constantly nourish brotherly affection and the oneness of heart in community life. It will surely help the religious to renew and deepen fraternal communion in their communities.

The act of breaking and eating a body in Holy Communion forms us over time. What if that’s not such a good thing? Recovering Communion in a Violent World provides an unblinking examination of the ritualized reenactment of the violence done to Jesus in Holy Communion, using insights from the fields of ritual studies and trauma theory. Then, drawing upon recent research in Christian origins, the book raises possibilities for sacramental meal practices that don’t ignore the death of Jesus but respond to it differently. Rather than colluding with systems of violence, these alternative practices respond to violence in our world by continuing to collaborate with the persistence and resilience of God, as well as with the realm of God still coming near. The result is a groundbreaking exploration that is both unflinching in its critique and passionate in its argument for the place of renewed Christian meal practices. In an era when world religions have come under greater scrutiny as sources of violence, this book asks readers to look squarely at the reenactment of violence that has come to narrowly define Holy Communion for so long and to imagine that more radical, resistant sacramental meal practices are possible.

For nearly two thousand years followers of Jesus have gathered in churches to eat a meal called Communion in his memory. In Table Talk, Mike Graves claims if we could travel back to those earliest Christian gatherings, we would realize we are not just two thousand years removed; we are light-years removed from how they ate when gathered because eating was why they gathered in the first place, a kind of first-century dinner party. Four characteristics of their Communion practices would leap out at us, traits that are scattered throughout the New Testament, but that often go unnoticed: how the meal was part of a full evening together, promoting intimacy; how it was a mostly inclusive affair, everyone welcome at the table; how it was typically festive, more like a dinner party; and how afterwards they enjoyed a lively conversation on a host of topics. But Table Talk explores more than just Communion practices, because a new way of doing church is happening around the world, gatherings more horizontal than vertical. For two thousand years Christians have oriented themselves toward God in the presence of others; now a growing number of congregations, part of the dinner church movement, are orienting themselves toward each other in the presence of God. This book tells their story and helps us rethink our own.

How does community arise in and exist through communication? Blending theory and case studies, Civic Communion looks at community-building in rural America and how civic-minded people come together through a variety of ways, such as hosting and attending festivals, addressing conflict, planning the community, and maintaining heritage museums. David E. Procter's insightful work reveals a specific and significant form of community 'talk' that serves to build and sustain community.

David B. Goldstein argues for a new understanding of Renaissance England from the perspective of communal eating. Rather than focus on traditional models of interiority, choice and consumption, Goldstein demonstrates that eating offered a central paradigm for the ethics of community formation. The book examines how sharing food helps build, demarcate and destroy relationships – between eater and eaten, between self and other, and among different groups. Tracing these eating relations from 1547 to 1680 - through Shakespeare, Milton, religious writers and recipe book authors - Goldstein shows that to think about eating was to engage in complex reflections about the body's role in society. In the process, he radically rethinks the communal importance of the Protestant Eucharist. Combining historicist literary analysis with insights from social science and philosophy, the book's arguments reverberate well beyond the Renaissance. Ultimately, Eating and Ethics in Shakespeare's England forces us to rethink our own relationship to food.

This collection of articles, stories, and poems selected from Weavings, the acclaimed journal of the spiritual life, is designed to encourage spiritual leaders to review their understanding and practice of spiritual leadership in the gentle light of God's desire that all human beings have life in abundance.

Esler's innovative proposal features a cutting-edge combination of theology, exegesis, and social analysis. He argues for new thinking about New Testament theology in light of the early social history of Christian communities. His detailed analysis of Paul's letters to the Romans and 1 Corinthians validates his thesis and clarifies its significance for scholarship. Using both the tradition of "the communion of the saints" and social-scientific methods, Esler brings the discipline of New Testament theology back to its theological core. He argues that interpreters also need to take into account both the history of interpretation and the multitude of voices within the contemporary church.

After his martyrdom at the hands of the Gestapo in 1945, Dietrich Bonhoeffer continued his witness in the hearts of Christians around the world. His Letters and Papers from Prison became a prized testimony to Christian faith and courage, read by thousands. Now in Life Together we have Pastor Bonhoeffer's experience of Christian community. This story of a unique fellowship in an underground seminary during the Nazi years reads like one of Paul's letters. It gives practical advice on how life together in Christ can be sustained in families and groups. The role of personal prayer, worship in common, everyday work, and Christian service is treated in simple, almost biblical, words. Life Together is bread for all who are hungry for the real life of Christian fellowship.

Twelve time-honored Christian practices that will help us, and the world, to flourish Practicing Our Faith offers help to Christians who are asking how our faith can help us discern what we might do and who we might become. How can we live faithfully and with integrity in a world where the pace of existence is so fast and life's patterns are changing all around us? Can we conduct our daily lives in ways that help us not just get by but flourish--as individuals, as communities, and as a society in concert with creation and in communion with God? These questions are on the hearts and minds of many seekers who are exploring spirituality today. They are also at the heart of Practicing Our Faith. Practices are those shared activities that address fundamental needs of humankind and creation and that, woven together, form a way of life. The twelve practices explored in this book are practices that human beings simply cannot do without, particularly at this time in history. This book will stimulate your imagination. It will encourage you to reflect. It initiates a conversation that will spread into many contexts, each of which presents unique opportunities for noticing, discussing, and living the practices of faith.