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Loading... Take This Bread: A Radical Conversionby Sara Miles
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. prehensel | Jun 5, 2009 |   An interesting book though difficult to pinpoint what kind of book it is. Part memoir, part theology, part social analysis- this book can engage the reader on a number of levels. Therefore, what a person might find interesting in this book is determined by their own social location. For example, a person who is finds the various liberal/conservative controversies interesting would find her take on this issue to be most important. Same for poverty issues and theological analysis. (  )morningrob | May 29, 2009 | Excellent and moving. This book is about faith born of action, not simply of intentions. I enjoyed it so much that I finished reading it the day I got it. seriously | Jul 31, 2008 | What would cause someone who is an atheist, a lesbian, and a left-wing journalist with a child born out of wedlock to suddenly embrace Christianity? In the case of Sara Miles, it was the simple act of communion. Miles shares her story in a witty and thoughtful manner, telling how her conversion drove her to provide materially for those who were hungry, to ‘feed God’s sheep’ as it were. Her story is a testament to how God can work within anyone, even those viewed by much of the church as flawed. Non-Christians might find this a bit heavy-handed, but I think it would be an enjoyable book whether one is a believer or not. At the very least, the story of how she set up an extremely successful food pantry should be inspirational to all who wish to work towards alleviating suffering. http://www.devourerofbooks.com/2008/0... (  )DevourerOfBooks | Jul 21, 2008 | An unlikely Christian (lesbian, single mother, political radical, atheist) has a dramatic conversion experience when she walks into an Episcopal church out of reporter's curiousity, takes communion and finds her soul completely overwhelmed. Soon enough, she has a vision of a truly open table that serves food to all and convinces her parish to allow her to open a food pantry which turns away no one. This memoir describes the religious, spiritual, financial and tangible challenges she faced as well as her conviction that doing something useful (feeding people in her case) is communion. Her tone is often irreverant in a traditional sense, observing at her pantry "Jesus didn't have to deal with the f***ing Russians" for example but is never irreverant in the deeper sense. Her story could be read by many Christians engaged in long discussions about "right" and "wrong" and process as a useful reminder of Jesus's radical ministry of loving the outcast and his call to "feed my sheep". This memoir, in the end, is about how one unlikely person found a way to create Beloved Community with other unlikely people in a very real way. ( )nancyewhite | Jul 11, 2008 | 0.050 seconds to build listing  no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0345495799, Paperback)Early one morning, for no earthly reason, Sara Miles, raised an atheist, wandered into a church, received communion, and found herself transformed–embracing a faith she’d once scorned. A lesbian left-wing journalist who’d covered revolutions around the world, Miles didn’t discover a religion that was about angels or good behavior or piety; her faith centered on real hunger, real food, and real bodies. Before long, she turned the bread she ate at communion into tons of groceries, piled on the church’s altar to be given away. Within a few years, she and the people she served had started nearly a dozen food pantries in the poorest parts of their city.Take This Bread is rich with real-life Dickensian characters–church ladies, millionaires, schizophrenics, bishops, and thieves–all blown into Miles’s life by the relentless force of her newfound calling. Here, in this achingly beautiful, passionate book, is the living communion of Christ. “The most amazing book.” –Anne Lamott “Engaging, funny, and highly entertaining . . . Miles comments, often with great insight, on the ugliness that many people associate with a particular brand of Christianity. Why would any thinking person become a Christian? is one of the questions she addresses, and her answer is also compelling reading.” –Booklist “Powerful . . . This book is a gem [and] will remain with you forever.” –The Decatur Daily “What Miles learns about faith, about herself and about the gift of giving and receiving graciously are wonderful gifts for the reader.” –National Public Radio “[A] joyful memoir . . . advocates big-tent Christianity in the truest sense . . . a story of finding sustenance and passing it on.” –National Catholic Reporter “Rigorously honest, Take This Bread demonstrates how hard–and how necessary–it is to welcome everyone to the table, without exception.” –San Francisco Chronicle “Moving, delightful and significant.” –The Christian Century Don’t miss the reading group guide in the back of the book. (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:22 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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However, Miles's theology is pretty shakey at times--lots of cherry-picking of scripture and ideas from Christianity. To be fair, though, everyone does that, but there are times when she and her friends revel in their progressive views of Christianity and look down their noses at the way the straight-laced Episcopalians do things. To me, that's no different than the ostracizing that often happens at "traditional" churches...the exact way the straight-laced Episcopalians looked down their noses at Miles and her lifestyle.
More than any of that, however, is the scatter-shot organization. There are just bits and pieces thrown in here and there...like the book is some sort of strange jambalaya (to borrow Miles's running food metaphor). Some parts seem to drag on and on, and some parts are fascinating, but there's often no clear connection to other chapters and aspects of her life--spiritual or otherwise. The ending is like a maraschino cherry taken out of the jar and plopped on top: foodies will realize this is not a compliment. It feels slapdash and hurried, and does not do justice to most of the larger themes (except food). It could have been such a better book if it had been a bit more planned, a bit more carefully written, and a bit more focused. (