Traces Luke's further development of eucharist practice and theology in Acts.

The Breaking of the Bread contains messages on the Lord’s Supper (Holy Communion), which resembles the holy of holies in Christian experience. Better for every one of us if our love for that high hour at the communion table were more noteworthy. Better for the church if the blessed fellowship of the presence could cast its spell on present-day life until love feels its praising touch. Christians have discovered a place whose spirit is elevated and gathered by the very idea of the communion, until one purposes that nothing will be allowed to break his trust with his Savior. It is with hope that these communion messages may develop such a mind-set that I am sending them out. If they will coordinate reflection as the heart gets ready for the hour when we meet at the Lord’s table, they will serve to enliven faith and arouse love; if they can by one way or another show his companions in any supportive way what more noteworthy love has done that he ought to be remembered, at that point, these communion messages will fill their need. “And the disciples devoted themselves to . . . breaking of the bread” (Acts 2:42). “On the first day of the week, when we gathered to break bread” (Acts 20:7). It holds a central place in our Christian worship.

The book is centered on the Holy Communion.....

Holy Habits is an initiative to nurture Christian discipleship. It explores Luke’s model of church found in Acts 2:42–47, identifies ten habits and encourages the development of a way of life formed by them. These resources, which include an introductory guide, have been developed to help churches explore the habits in a range of contexts and live them out in whole-life, missional discipleship.

Professor. Pundit. Public nuisance. In his columns, books and on social media, Jonathan Jansen is prolific, and he likes to speak his mind about schools and universities, race, politics and our complex South African society. He has brought incisive analysis, compassion and a sense of humour to some of the most controversial issues in our country for many years. And now, in this memoir, Jansen goes back to his early years: growing up in a loving, fiercely evangelical family on the Cape Flats, being put on the road to purpose by an inspiring school teacher and becoming the first of his generation to go to university. Journey with Jansen as he finds his passion for teaching high school and becomes a leading academic and thinker amid great transformation in post-apartheid South Africa. His gift for story-telling and his interactions with people from different walks of life offer moving insights into the intricacies of South African society, insights that are filled with wisdom and leadership lessons. Jansen's patchwork of memories tells a bigger story than that of his own life. It's a tale of learning the value of 'breaking bread' with others, of finding mutual recognition in our different fears and faiths, our fumbles and fortitude, our hurts and our hopes.

What’s the difference between eucharist and agape? And how did each come to be? The liturgies of early Christians are often obscure and variegated in the historical record. This is especially true of the eucharist, where the basic practice of communal eating is difficult to disentangle from other contemporary meals, whether Greco-Roman or Jewish practices—or the ill-defined agape meal. In Breaking Bread, Alistair C. Stewart cuts through scholarly confusion about early Christian eating. Stewart pinpoints the split in agape and eucharist to the shift in celebrating the eucharist on Sunday morning, leading to the inception of agape as an evening meal. The former sought divine union, the latter, communal harmony. In the final chapter he explores a breadth of Syriac, Greek, and Latin primary sources on a variety of local eucharistic traditions, tracing their development into the familiar prayers and distribution of token amounts of bread and wine, which emerged in the third century. Nuanced and well-researched, Breaking Bread clarifies the development of the blessed sacrament and its lesser-known counterpart. Theologians and historians of early Christianity will find Stewart’s work foundational in approaching a topic of enduring scholarly interest but elusive consensus.