Christian Eucharist as Open Table: Ritual and Theological Analysis

Together, the Ritual Studies Unit and the Open and Relational Theologies Unit will consider the practice, purpose, ethics, and theology of the open table, or a Christian eucharist that includes all and excludes none. Papers will analyze eucharistic practice from the perspective of ritual studies, considering how embodied activity provides an alternative means of knowing reality, then transforming that reality which has come to be better known. Papers will also consider the ethical implications of communal eating in a world dominated by agribusiness, in which the act of eating itself implicates one in global systems of privilege. Developing this theme, papers will address the open table as an act of resistance to social marginalization. Although mealtime has frequently been a time of exclusion, Jesus's teachings and practices suggest that sacred mealtime can express ethical universalism, thereby enacting the unconditional love of a cosmic God.