I signed up to review books for Thomas Nelson. That means I receive books from them for free in exchange for reviewing them. Looking over the books they had available, I chose The Sacred Meal by Nora Gallagher (which means I received it for free; this is my attempt at full disclosure).

I chose the book because I have been studying the Lord’s Supper over the last few years. I thought this book would be about that. It is. Well, kind of. I feel sort of like a European that gets invited to a football game in the States, only to discover that the sport isn’t the one he is familiar with. What Gallagher describes is not the Lord’s Supper I know from my Church of Christ background. This is Holy Communion. It exists in a world that is foreign to my Christian experience, with priests and altars, people eating wafers and drinking from chalices. It was an interesting insight, but a frustrating one at the same time.

As an author, I’m sensitive to not wanting to be overly critical of someone else’s work. Yet I also feel a responsibility to do my best to present an honest evaluation of what I’ve read. If I’m being too hard, so be it. Write it off to just another grumpy reviewer.

More than being about the supper, this book is about community and fellowship, a description of the author’s experiences in church. That’s not bad in itself, but it’s sad that this book is supposed to be part of a series about “Ancient Practices.” There is a cursory nod to the biblical background, but Gallagher’s interest is in modern practices, not ancient ones. Biblical history is given a cursory nod, but little more than that. Gallagher’s statement that “We have known for some time that the Gospels were written long after the death of Jesus and were compiled by men who lived long after him” reveals a person who has spent little time examining current biblical research. What “we have known for some time” was disproved decades ago, so her attempt at intellectual snobbery comes off as mere ignorance.

Still, I did gain some insights into human nature and more than a few thoughts about what participating in the Lord’s Supper can mean to Christians. In an age where personal experience often trumps research, Gallagher’s book may well find an audience.

I do have to lodge one more complaint. Are there no proofreaders at Thomas Nelson with a rudimentary knowledge of Spanish? Words like “Sanctuario” and “communidades” are painful to read. Either write them in English or in Spanish, but not a mangled version of the two.

If you’d like insight into how Holy Communion is practiced in the Anglican church, this book can shed some light. If you’d like to know more about the ancient practice of the Lord’s Supper, you’d do better to read John Mark Hicks’ Come To The Table.