Description: In Still Hungry at the Feast, Episcopal priest and professor Samuel Torvend invites readers to expand their experience and understanding of the Mass, the Holy Eucharist, as more than a personal encounter with the risen Christ. Drawing on recent Jesus research, the long history of eucharistic reflection among Christians, and contemporary commitments to economic justice, Still Hungry at the Feast invokes the integral relationship between eucharistic practice and eucharistic mission. Here the ecumenical pattern and meaning of the Mass opens toward care for our wounded creation, solidarity with the poor and outcast, keeping the fast, and recovering a eucharistic economy. Lectionary references will assist those charged with liturgical preparation, while preachers and catechists will find guidance in the eucharistic homilies that conclude the book.
Brief description:
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.
Review Quotes: "In Still Hungry at the Feast, Torvend sets a bountiful table of food for thought, as well as a large helping of troubling questions. Equally at home in a variety of ecumenical understandings of what the eucharistic table often means for Christians, Torvend challenges readers to broaden their perspective, to reflect on what eucharistic table practice has to say about the larger feast of life that leaves so many still hungry at the table. The world is God's household, with a bountiful table set for all life, yet that `household of the world is marked by deathly inequities.' This book is a passionate appeal to mend the breach between liturgy and life, between Eucharist and justice for all God's creatures. Urgent questions face liturgists, homilists, catechists, and indeed all at the eucharistic table. `Who is still hungry at the feast' of life, and how can this table model and inspire care for those still hungry at that larger table? A much-needed book with timely insights and questions."Gil Ostdiek, OFM, Professor of Liturgy, Catholic Theological Union, Chicago