N.T. Wright on the Meal Jesus Gave Us

Tom Wright, Holy Communion for Amateurs (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1999), viii + 97pp., ISBN 978-0340745793.

[The following review was first published on London School of Theology’s website in January 2000. The book has since been published in the United States by Westminster John Knox Press with the title The Meal Jesus Gave Us: Understanding Holy Communion.]

The author stands with the best of the best New Testament scholars in the world today. The large heavyweight books he has published have ‘N.T. Wright’ on the spine; but to many, he is Tom Wright, former Dean of Lichfield Cathedral [and now Bishop of Durham since 2003], and author of Lent Guides and many other helpful semi-devotional works. Here he offers a popular introduction to Holy Communion (or the Jesus-meal, as he calls it), in Hodder & Stoughton’s new ‘For Amateurs’ series.

Those familiar with some of his fuller works will smile as the discussion in the book embraces the importance of ‘symbols’ and ‘stories’ for how we understand ourselves and the world in which we live. Nor will it come as any surprise that a few of the fifteen short chapters are devoted to looking at the Old Testament and New Testament (both Jewish and Pagan) setting to the Jesus-meal. Nor again that the focus of Christian end-time hope is for the renewal of all creation.

Not that one needs to have prior knowledge of that material to get the best out of the book. Unlike some other volumes which bear the designation ‘for amateurs’ or ‘for beginners’, this one is clear and concise, with full use of helpful illustrations and stories, as the author leads us through the Jewish Passover meal to the Last Supper (‘or was it the first?’, he asks) to the breaking of bread in the early church to wherever the Jesus-meal is celebrated by Christians today, and its significance both in looking back and in anticipating what’s to come.

Along the way he deals with some of the historical and theological issues (e.g., the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, the disagreement between Luther and Zwingli, Thomas Cranmer’s influence on the Prayer Book) – all in a way that will introduce the significance of those things to the novice, and which may make many a seasoned theologian a little envious of his ability to present the pertinent material in such an appetising way.

The book might well be used by a home-group leader as the basis for some studies on the topic, or a copy could bought for a church library. It would be a shame if the inflated cover price for a relatively slim volume kept potential readers away from such a helpful introduction to one of the foremost celebrations of the church.