Samuel Torvend, PhD, is a priest in the Diocese of Olympia and professor of religion at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington. He is the author of Flowing Water, Uncommon Birth: Christian Baptism in a Post-Christian Culture; Daily Bread, Holy Meal: Opening the Gifts of Holy Communion; and Luther and the Hungry Poor: Gathered Fragments. His many published articles focus on the Eucharist and social ethics.

• ContentsIntroduction Abbreviations Chapter 1The Worldly Trajectory of the Eucharist Chapter 2Discerning a Surplus of Meaning Chapter 3Eating with the Hungry and the Outcast Chapter 4The Banquet of God’s Vulnerable Creation Chapter 5An Economy of Grace Chapter 6Holding All Things in Common Chapter 7Eucharistic Limitations 1Chapter 8Three Homilies The Kingdom of Heaven Is Like YeastI Am the Living Bread Come Down from HeavenTo Whom Will All This Piled-Up Wealth of Yours Go?Selected Bibliography Index of Biblical Citations Index of Subjects

"In these pages, Torvend pushes beyond familiar personal and communal meanings of the Christian eucharist to its large implications for social well-being and the good of the earth itself. The worldly ground and horizon of eucharistic practice emerges clearly here through fresh biblical reflections and many voices out of Christian history. Far more than an academic treatise, this is an urgent plea that Christian eucharistic feasting address the cries of the world's hungry and poor, the afflicted and oppressed."Thomas H. Schattauer, Professor of Liturgics, Wartburg Theological Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa