By Tom Wright
Hodder & Stoughton. 97 pages. £4.99
ISBN 0 340 74579 7
This latest little offering from Tom Wright is easier to read than to assess. It lures the non-specialist reader into the subject through several short, imaginative chapters in which we participate in a modern birthday party, an ancient Passover meal, the Last Supper, and an early Christian meal. He draws out a focus on forgiveness, God's past and future, the fellowship of believers and the life-changing story the meal proclaims.
It was no surprise to find Dr. Wright majoring on the eschatological focus of Holy Communion; this is where he is at his best. He says that in Jesus, God's future came rushing into the present to meet us, and therefore, at every celebration of the Jesus-meal, 'God's past catches up with us again and God's future comes to meet us once more'.
This short book is courageously comprehensive in its scope: the differences of Christendom are aired and commented on; Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, Frith and Oecolampadius all get their moment. He states clearly that Holy Communion is not a sacrifice humans do to earn God's favour, but I would still have liked clearer teaching on the achievement of the cross. I was sorry that he reserved his least charitable criticism for those who favour lay presidency. Indeed, the last few chapters seemed out of place: more of an attempted justification for Anglican liturgy (including some of its recent and questionable additions) than a natural progression from his theological explanations.
All in all, this isn't a book I would give to 'amateurs', but much of it I found beautifully written, clever, heart-warming and stimulating.
