The Eucharist is at the heart of individual Christian devotion and at the center of every Christian community. Tissa Balasuriya challenges us to see the relation between the spiritual "Bread of Life" and the "staff of life," food for the physically hungry, who make up one-third of the world. This is disturbing but dynamic reading for all who gather at the Table of the Lord's Supper.

Author - Tissa Balasuriya

"I hope Christians - especially Western Christians - will read this book, despite its blind impatience with historical and ecclesial details and balance, because its central thesis is the gospel truth: eucharistic celebration, like the faith it expresses, has been so domesticated by feudalism, colonialism, capitalism, racism, sexism, that its symbolic action has to penetrate many layers of heavy camouflage before it is free, before it can be felt."

Robert W. Hovda, former Editorial Director, The Liturgical Conference

"Has the Eucharist been used for the oppression of men and women? Because most Christians have never asked this question, this book is theologically important. It is also timely. For, facing the rise or the resurgence of Asian, African, and Latin American cultures, Christians may now have the last chance to prove their faith by their deeds."

George H. Tavard, Professor Emeritus, Methodist Theological School in Ohio