Take and Eat, and Take the Consequences

The Author: Todd B. Murken was trained for the ministry at Christ Seminary-Seminex. He received his doctorate in systematic theology from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and was awarded the Arthur Carl Piepkorn Prize for one of his published articles. He has served parishes and led their celebrations of the Lord's Supper in Maine and now in Wisconsin. He edits the theological journal, Crossings, and teaches at the Lay School of Ministry in East Central Wisconsin (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.)

"Some sacramental traditions see recipients at the Holy Communion not as doing, but as being done to and done for while other traditions fault that accent as too passive, which it may be. Murken rediscovers an ecumenical third way, with canny support from the New Testament and Luther and Bonhoeffer. He reminds us that action is defined not only by how self-involving it is, but also how consequential it is and the difference it makes. Murken represents sacramental reception as itself a momentous, fateful, history-making action. Here is a winsome, church-uniting prospect." (Robert W. Bertram, Seminex Professor (Emeritus) of Historical and Systematic Theology, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago)
"An argument as fresh as it is thorough for a long ignored but crucial aspect of the theology of the Lord's Supper. In a very convincing way, this book shows how engaging a particular tradition - as present in Luther and Bonhoeffer - in conversation with the key voices of contemporary eucharistic theology results in surprising ecumenical implications. This is an important contribution to Luther and Bonhoeffer studies, but more importantly a significant step toward an ecumenical theology of the Lord's Supper." (Reinhard Huetter, Professor of Theological Studies, Duke University Divinity School)