Recovering the Love Feast: Broadening our Eucharistic Celebrations.

Jacobs, Rachel Miller

Recovering the Love Feast: Broadening our Eucharistic Celebrations. By Paul Fike Stutzman. Eugene, Ore.: Wipf & Stock. 2011. Pp. 281. $32.

Paul Stutzman organizes Recovering the Love Feast into two sections: the first and largest traces the history of the Love Feast in Christian tradition; the second suggests ways contemporary congregations might appropriate the forming practices of the Love Feast. He argues that it is important to know the history and context of those practices to understand not only the purpose and meaning of the Love Feast, but also Christian worship and eucharistic practice in general. Most crucially, "[Recovering the Love Feast is important because it has great potential to shape the habits and character of the church" (161).

In its original context, the Love Feast drew from the banqueting practices of the Greco-Roman world. For example, the evening banquet on which the Love Feast was modeled was divided into two parts: the feast proper and the after-dinner entertainment, which consisted of hymn-singing and the reading of sacred texts or poetry. The hinge between these two was a ritual libation. It is not a big leap from this to the pattern of Christian worship we see in Acts and 1 Corinthians: a communal evening meal followed by the ritual sharing of bread and cup in the context of worship (singing, Scripture reading, and testimony).

While it retained several key banqueting practices of the surrounding culture, the Love Feast also transformed them in telling ways. Footwashing, for example, was carried out in the example of Jesus (washing each other's feet rather than having them washed by slaves) and as a sign of Christian submission and cleansing from sin rather than merely a means of avoiding smelling the feet of one's banqueting partners. It may come as a surprise to contemporary readers that the early church's practice of footwashing was no more comfortable in its original cultural context than it is today.

The most significant difference between the Christian worship meal and its cultural parallels was that the former was radically inclusive, gathering not just men of wealth and position for an evening that reinforced cultural norms but instead creating new patterns by welcoming women, slaves, and the poor and by dividing food equally among all. Other practices that highlighted the distinctly Christian nature of the gathering included the invitation to communal confession; the holy kiss as a greeting that signified reconciliation in a new, non-biological "family"; the reading of letters and Hebrew Scriptures; the offering of prayers; the singing of hymns; and instruction of the faithful instead of after-dinner entertainment.

It was in part the radical nature of the Love Feast that contributed to its waning. Most basically, a gathering of such diverse types of people to share food and worship was "socially awkward" (108), and there is evidence very early of struggles with elitism, selfishness, and drunkenness (1 Cor. 12:17-22) at this form of table worship. In addition, many changes introduced into church structure and practice through the Constantinian shift set the stage for an "over-spiritualization" of the Christian meal. "With the decline of the Love Feast and its related practices, many of the physical and practical aspects of the early church meal were left behind," writes Stutzman. "The liturgical practices that remained tended to overemphasize the spiritual nature of the Eucharist and to overlook the importance of fellowship between members of the church" (137).

Beginning in the early sixteenth century, groups of Christian reformers re-appropriated neglected practices from the early church, among them the Brethren whose practice of the Love Feast in a variety of forms continues to this day. Stutzman argues that the meal and its associated practices need not be peculiar to Brethren; the meal has important contributions to make in broadening the eucharist and in shaping the lives of all Christians. The remaining chapters then look at five Christian practices that embody important spiritual disciplines (footwashing/submission, fellowship meal/love, examination/confession, holy kiss/reconciliation, and communion/thanksgiving) and provide an apologetic for each as valid, and valuable, today.

This is an interesting book, and especially useful for two reasons: its thorough grounding in the research, including primary sources from antiquity, and its breadth of perspective, both historical and formational. Particularly in postmodernity, we in the church need to be explicit about why we do things and why they matter. Recovering the Love Feast can make significant contributions to worship planning, preaching, catechism, and the ritual life of congregations.

Recovering the Love Feast is also a frustrating read for the same reasons that it is valuable: the quantity of detail is so encyclopedic that the reader easily loses sight of the bigger point. This is exacerbated by Stutzman's excessive use of long block quotes; too many pages read like a list of points the author wants to make rather than well-digested information that constructs a coherent argument. The project is a good one, the subject matter worthwhile, the argument provocative--yet the book needs significant editing.

Part of the problem may be a lack of clarity about the intended audience. Stutzman suggests that some readers may struggle with his choice to look at the "interplay between historical analysis and contemporary practice" (xi). In my estimation, that combination is fruitful, but greater clarity about who the reader is would organize and tip that interplay more productively. In its current format, I find myself frustrated both as a scholar and a practitioner; regardless of which hat I wear, I need to proceed through too much material whose relevance to my interests is unclear.

Goshen, Ind.

RACHEL MILLER JACOBS