Augsburg Fortress

Building on his previous work, Frank C. Senn explores the relationship between the sacramental body and blood of Christ, the ecclesial body of Christ, and human bodies. Drawing on the richness of the eucharistic traditions and his own life experiences, Senn expands our understandings of the Eucharist to include a life of gratitude (Anaphora), cosmology and praise (preface), body and remembrance (anamnesis), Spirit and community (epiclesis), orthodoxy and world view (doxology), presence and union with Christ (Communion), and initiation and reconciliation (fencing the table). It argues for use of a full eucharistic prayer to express a wider understanding of the Eucharist, including creation themes, an emphasis on the passion of Christ to connect the Eucharist to suffering humanity, an expansion of the fellowship dimension of the Eucharist to embrace the church in heaven and around the world, a recovery of Trinitarian praise, an ecumenical exploration of how we understand theologically the presence of Christ received bodily, and a reconsideration of the value of initiation in sacramental discipline and in the life of faith.