Consuming the Word: The New Testament and The Eucharist in the Early Church

When I heard Scott Hahn was releasing a new book my immediate reaction was....this one goes on the review list. Like Dr. Hahn, I am also a convert to the Catholic faith, and have always found his books informative and well written and his latest release is no exception.Consuming the Word: The New Testament and the Eucharist in the Early Church is a book, that I feel is approachable for any level reader. In fact Scott has said he wanted everyone to be able to read and understand this volume. He did a very good job sticking to his plan, not making this a very heavy theological work that could be hard for some to understand. This book can be appreciated by anyone with an interest in the history of the Early Church through Pope Benedict XVI.Right out of the gate Scott does a fantastic job of driving a point home. The New Testament in the Early Church was not a collection of books in the Bible. Instead it was the new covenant established by Jesus Christ at the Last Supper and in turn becoming the Eucharistic celebration which is the central part of the Holy Mass. To substantiate this he draws on writings of various Church Fathers including Clement, Ignatius, Eusebius, Cyril, and Irenaeus as well the Gospel writers themselves. This is a very important point to remember. The Early Church in its infancy did not have the collected works of what we currently call the New Testament. Only the extremely rich could afford written "books" thus letters were transmitted verbally and Tradition ruled the day. This would continue until the second century.After establishing the original meaning of "New Testament", Scott goes on to detail how the canon of what would become the collected works known as the New Testament was established. He also covers the lectionary and its use throughout the year of the Church calendar. Near the end of the book is a chapter on how to read the Bible "from the heart of the Church". This was a very good chapter which for me had a great take away in the lines "Most important, we should read the Bible in its natural and supernatural habitat. We should read the Bible in the light of the liturgy." Simply put, Scripture should be read in the thought and setting of the Mass. In this chapter Scott goes extensively into Pope Benedict XVI's 2010 apostolic exhortation Verbum Domini which he refers to as "arguably the most important documentary on Scripture produced by the Church in many years."Consuming the Word is a perfect title for this book. Scott describes how you should "consume the Word", let it fill you and become a part of you. He clarifies that "Word" is so much more than the Bible you hold in your hand today. Do not forgo Tradition and the Early Church Fathers. Their voices are just as loud and clear today as they were in the first century....if you only listen....and consume them.You can find out more about the book from publisher Image Catholic Books.

In his introduction Dr. Hahn writes: "God reveals himself and gives himself in the scroll. What begins as poetry, however, we can allow to degenerate into jargon; and so the Greco-Latinate terms "covenant," "testament," "liturgy," and "Eucharist" - all workaday words that inspired our ancestors to sing - now drop with a thud of a technical vocabulary."Catholics and even non-Catholics are intimidated by Catholic terminology. In 2011 when we received the New Translation of the Roman Missal - the text that Catholics use at worship - there was great lamentations and gnashing of teeth when the phrase "one in being" in the Creed was changed to "consubstantial". We were told by "liturgical experts" that no one would understand it. However it is that dumbing down of our faith for decades that has lead the faithful to be separated from the mystery experienced in the words of our faith. Dr. Hahn opens up these words and their meanings in the Early Church for us. When we hear "New Testament" we immediately think of the books that encompass the last 1/3rd of the Bible. What did "New Testament" mean to the early Church, long before we had a canon of which books belonged in the Bible? We even find the term in Jeremiah 31:31, far before the time of Christ.Learning the answers to these sorts of questions is not mundane, but a fascinating journey into the Sacred Scriptures. It will give the lay reader a new sense of wonder for what they experience at Mass. Do not be intimidated that Dr. Hahn uses Greek and Hebrew words - he does an excellent job explaining them and the chapters are short. It is very readable for the lay person who takes their time with the text. Those who are avid readers of theological material will be able to "consume" this text in a day.Dr. Hahn relates his work to the New Evangelization, and helps us understand that by entering into the Eucharist into the Early Church and learning to evangelize as the early Church evangelized, we can hope that "perhaps our world can be remade and renewed as theirs was remade and renewed." Not quite as satisfying as the Lamb's Supper, it still earns 5 stars and is another stellar text by Dr. Hahn that deserves to be read and talked about. I know I will be passing along to my fellow co-workers in the vineyard.