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Take This Bread: A Radical Conversion
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Average Rating:  out of 27 Reviews
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Price: $24.95
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Sale: $9.95
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Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
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EAN (European Article Number): 9780345486929
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Number of Items: 1
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Binding: Hardcover
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Author: Sara Miles
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Publisher: Ballantine Books
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Edition: 1
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Dewey Decimal Number: 277.3083092
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Publication Date: 2007-02-20
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Reading Level: 304
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Description: “Mine is a personal story of an unexpected and terribly inconvenient Christian conversion, told by a very unlikely convert.”
–Sara Miles
Raised as an atheist, Sara Miles lived an enthusiastically secular life as a restaurant cook and a writer. Then early one winter morning, for no earthly reason, she wandered into a church. “I was certainly not interested in becoming a Christian,” she writes, “or, as I thought of it rather less politely, a religious nut.” But she ate a piece of bread, took a sip of wine, and found herself radically transformed.
The mysterious sacrament of communion has sustained Miles ever since, in a faith she’d scorned, in work she’d never imagined. In this astonishing story, she tells how the seeds of her conversion were sown, and what her life has been like since she took that bread.
A lesbian left-wing journalist who covered revolutions around the world, Miles was not the woman her friends expected to see suddenly praising Jesus. She was certainly not the kind of person the government had in mind to run a “faith-based charity.” Religion for her was not about angels or good behavior or piety; it was about 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. The first food pantry she established provided hundreds of poor, elderly, sick, deranged, and marginalized people with lifesaving food and a sense of belonging. Within a few years, the loaves had multiplied, and she and the people she served had started nearly a dozen more pantries.
Take This Bread is rich with real-life Dickensian characters–church ladies, child abusers, millionaires, schizophrenics, bishops, and thieves–all blown into Miles’s life by the relentless force of her newfound calling. She recounts stories about trudging through the rain in housing projects, wiping the runny nose of a psychotic man, storing a battered woman’s .375 Magnum in a cookie tin. She writes about the economy of hunger and the ugly politics of food; the meaning of prayer and the physicality of faith. Here, in this achingly beautiful, passionate book, is the living communion of Christ.
“The most amazing book.” – Anne Lamott
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Customer Reviews
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Review Summary: A Gorgeous Challenge |
Date: 2007-03-17 |
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Details: In an age when so much "Christian" energy is focussed on metaphorically stoning gays, immigrants, those whose need for a safety net would threaten to raise taxes, etc. -- here is a woman who asks "What Would Jesus Do," and looks to the Sermon on the Mount rather than an out-of-context verse in Leviticus for an answer. Jesus would feed the hungry, and so she does, very literally. It's also a mystical book, and challenges all of us to explore the realm of the numinous. It's perfectly, beautifully written. |
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Review Summary: Hang on for a wild ride |
Date: 2007-04-19 |
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Details: Passionate--open hearted--piercingly intelligent--earthy--occasionally profane--absolutely unconventional--Sara's raw story of her own life pulled me along to its hopeful conclusion, all my other reading set aside for later. This is NOT a "how-to" book; it is clear that Sara believes she played little role in this conversion, and that even for her it remains a mystery--but what a compelling mystery! Her journalistic talents only enhance what would by any measure be a great read. And if you like her style, as I do, check out her earlier book, "Hacking the Party Line: the Democrats & Silicon Valley". |
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Review Summary: Experiencing Conversion With Sarah Miles |
Date: 2007-03-20 |
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Details: As a fan of Anne Lamott and unusual conversion stories, I came to Sarah Miles's story with expectations and was not disappointed. This is a fresh, humorous, passionate, and unusual look at a change of heart--from a left-wing, secular journalist to someone caught and held by the mystery and grace of the Eucharist in St. Gregory of Nyssa's Episcopal Church in San Francisco. Her journey--her insights along the way--and her strong committment to feeding others as she is fed by God makes for a remarkable and inspiring story. This is well worth reading. |
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Review Summary: Very good... |
Date: 2007-08-05 |
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Details: I really enjoyed Sara Miles's "Take This Bread." Even without the religious angle, Miles's life is an interesting one: raised in Greenwich Village by athiest parents, she worked in food service for several years before getting involved in left-wing politics. While covering war-torn Latin America, Miles saw suffering first hand. After settling in San Francisco ("The northernmost city in Latin America") with her young daughter, she finds love and feels herself drawn to a church in Potrero Hill. Her religious conversion may not be entirely surprising: both sets of her grandparents were missionaries. Her spiritual journey is brutally honest: like Anne Lamott, Miles doesn't feign piety or see the world through rose colored glasses. After Miles starts a food bank at her church, there are moments of grace as well as challenges to her faith. Miles is candid about her own self-righteousness and lack of affection for those who don't share her worldview. What emerges is an honest, engrossing story about just how difficult it is to be a Christian. It is also a revealing look at faith-based charities and social problems in America.
I enjoyed "Take This Bread" quite a bit. I'm sure many others will too. |
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Review Summary: Funny. Troubling. Highly Recommended. |
Date: 2007-10-31 |
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Details: Sara Miles, a life-long foodie, is hungry. She wanders the bowels of kitchens, war, and politics in search of sustenance. She finds it finally in the cesspool that is the church, and in those banging at its doors. The place Jesus came to be with the lepers, the outcast, and the possessed. And they are all still there. Sara tells her story with funny and troubling anecdotes about both the nonsense and the overwhelming presence of God found in the players and places of organized religion. The fact is, there are loads of people wandering around longing for meaning, or to be a part of the healing of this planet. But the last place they would expect to find it is the church, which seems so embattled with itself it is essentially worthless: filled with hypocrites, snobs, holier-than-thou's, and exceedingly needy people. This memoir takes us into such a place, recognizes the players for what they are, but then generously asks - So what? Aren't we all a little mad? Come to the table anyway. It will fill you, empty you, and fill you again. I bought ten copies of this book for friends who are living on the edge, not knowing where to look for what it is they are missing. I recommend it highly.
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