“Mine is a personal story of an unexpected and terribly inconvenient Christian conversion, told by a very unlikely convert.”
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reviews
Dec 16, 2009
John
rated it: 
In her introduction, Miles claims to have bridged the chasm between liberal Christianity and right-wing/fundamentalist Christianity.
But what that amounts to, basically, is saying "hi" to a guy with a KJV in the front seat of his pickup. Otherwise, fundies play the one-dimensional role they usually do.
Aspires to nuance but never gets there.
But what that amounts to, basically, is saying "hi" to a guy with a KJV in the front seat of his pickup. Otherwise, fundies play the one-dimensional role they usually do.
Aspires to nuance but never gets there.
Dec 11, 2007
Angie
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I didn't necessarily "enjoy" reading this book while I was actually reading it. I felt uncomfortable and challenged, not by the language but by some of the opinions and views. This author and I couldn't be more different, and I'm sure she'd strongly disapprove of my LDS religion (even the liberal wing of the Episcopalian church was far too conservative for her). Nonetheless, as Sara Miles took me along on her journey from atheist to Christian, unflichingly laying out her biases and wea
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Apr 12, 2009
Dave
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Sara Miles' conversion memoir is a great change from many books about Christianity and spiritual life, whose main selling points are their emphasis on religion as opposed to form or readability. I've found it hard to gut out many contemporary Christian books, too fat tracts of abused English. Miles' spare writing unflinchingly examines her route from an upbringing with atheist parents, to reporting on insurgent conflicts around the world to wandering into a church in San Francisco and finding a
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Jul 26, 2011
Lou
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I am enjoying this book and the author's insight/ perspective into Christianity. Thank you Jenny for recommending it to me. Now that I have finished it I can say that the author's comments on the various disparate "Christians" that she comes in contact with are replete with full and clear facts. For anyone who has worked with a faith based non profit you will recognize these characters. The "blue hairs" who want to do good but don't want to soil the doilies on the tables, the
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Jun 08, 2011
Laura
rated it:
It's true. I'm a sucker for cover art. Tell me, how could I turn down book that uses Gothic typeface and an image of a cross made with a jelly sandwich on Wonder Bread?
I was actually checking the library stacks for another memoir when this book caught my eye. It was a serendipitous discovery, as I'd just had an email exchange with a colleague regarding her frustration that students had "politicized" the Eucharist (a.k.a communion). Specifically, students wearing rainbow pi More...
I was actually checking the library stacks for another memoir when this book caught my eye. It was a serendipitous discovery, as I'd just had an email exchange with a colleague regarding her frustration that students had "politicized" the Eucharist (a.k.a communion). Specifically, students wearing rainbow pi More...
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Apr 17, 2011
Jenny
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Take This Bread is a memoir of Sara Miles, an athiest and a lesbian who has a sudden conversion to Christianity. As she discovers the grace of God that is unending and free, so she mirrors that to her community by beginning a food pantry at her church in San Francisco. Throughout her life she has been drawn to food and discovers through her religious practice that food is what connects us to God and one another.
I really enjoyed reading this book, and have discovered that I really e More...
I really enjoyed reading this book, and have discovered that I really e More...
Dec 05, 2008
Rebecca
rated it: 
It’s so hard to put into a few short words how much this book affected me and resonated with me; I could write a paper, not just a blurb. But, I start winter quarter in two days, so after thinking about it for several days, I am finally putting pen to paper, so to speak, however imperfectly. I will just describe a few things that affected me the most and hope that you will read the book for yourself. (I apologize, in advance, for the length.)
Sara Miles conversion experience be More...
Sara Miles conversion experience be More...
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Apr 20, 2008
Jessica
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I was so excited to read this book after I read reviews of it, but I ended up being disappointed. The basic storyline is that the author Sara Miles, a lesbian atheist, converts to Christianity and starts a food bank at her church because she believes that really fulfills Jesus' commands to the Church. And I will say that her work to start a food bank and her beliefs about how that fulfills Jesus' work today I totally agree with. But, as a liberal Christian I find her church and her other beli
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Feb 09, 2009
melanie (lit*chick)
rated it:
I have a fascination with spiritual memoirs. Seeing how Jesus meets people in personal and unpredicatable ways strengthens my faith. And while I don't share most of Sara Miles' views (theological or political), I do share her connection with feeding people as an outward working of the Spirit. I think food and hospitality get a bum rap, but the act of sharing a meal is most intimate, particularly with strangers.
I found her account of opening a food pantry to be challenging, honest, and insp More...
I found her account of opening a food pantry to be challenging, honest, and insp More...
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Nov 13, 2011
The three stars may be a bit generous but that's because I like the overall subject matter. It's nice to see representation from a progressive Christian. That said, I found her writing so repetitive and the food analogy overused. For the love of all the bread in the word...the freaking food analogy! That dead horse was beat to a pulp.
Sara was a bit too holier than thou for me. Her writing smacks of the irritating stereotype of a religious convert who is blessed enough to discov More...
Sara was a bit too holier than thou for me. Her writing smacks of the irritating stereotype of a religious convert who is blessed enough to discov More...
Dec 06, 2008
Christy
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Sara Miles was a single mother, a left-wing atheist lesbian activist when she walked into St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church and spontaneously participated in communion. Finding herself suddenly and embarrassingly moved by her experience, she decided to return.
Miles writes about the difficulties of conversion when nothing about her newfound religion made any sense to her – not the evangelists, the dogmatisms, the theological concepts, or the inner ecclesiastical rifts. For her, religi More...
Miles writes about the difficulties of conversion when nothing about her newfound religion made any sense to her – not the evangelists, the dogmatisms, the theological concepts, or the inner ecclesiastical rifts. For her, religi More...
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Oct 03, 2011
Jon
rated it:
Sara Miles developed a thriving ministry of offering food to the needy, a food pantry like you’ve never seen before. In this autobiographical book, she describes a background of working in restaurants in New York City, of studying in Mexico City during the student riots of 1968, and of reporting from Central America during the Reagan-Sandinista War. Settling in San Francisco, she joined St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church, an artsy, liberal, innovative congregation, and started thinking about the i
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Mar 14, 2011
Cheryl
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Many parts of this book were profoundly disturbing to me as I read them in light of the painful transitions at my church and some long-brewing thoughts I've had about the potential of the emergent church movement. I gave it 5 stars because it hit its mark with me. As I was sitting in the adult educational class of my most definitely not-emerging, not-radical suburban white professional-class church, I was listening to the pastor's presentation about the nature of the church in Lutheranism throu
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Dec 11, 2010
Stacy
rated it:
Take This Bread by Sara Miles
Sara Miles is an Episcopalian lay person who came to faith as an adult. Take This Bread is her faith journey and correlation between the sacrament of communion and what some call, Gospel Hospitality. Sara takes the reader through her relationships, her careers, her frustrations with organized religion, and her joys with the many people she met and served.
Overall, I would recommend this book, particularly for people working in ministry. Sara p More...
Sara Miles is an Episcopalian lay person who came to faith as an adult. Take This Bread is her faith journey and correlation between the sacrament of communion and what some call, Gospel Hospitality. Sara takes the reader through her relationships, her careers, her frustrations with organized religion, and her joys with the many people she met and served.
Overall, I would recommend this book, particularly for people working in ministry. Sara p More...
Jul 18, 2010
Natalie
rated it:
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I'd been wanting to read it for a long time, but was never able to find a copy in my local bookstores--I just acquired an e-reader and discovered that there was an e-book edition, so I snapped it up.
One thing really bothered me about this book, and that was the way Miles described the appearance of a lot of the people her food pantry serves. Every time she describes a fat person who is coming to the food pantry or is having food pantry food deli More...
One thing really bothered me about this book, and that was the way Miles described the appearance of a lot of the people her food pantry serves. Every time she describes a fat person who is coming to the food pantry or is having food pantry food deli More...
Mar 10, 2010
Kathryn
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After reading the description on the back, I realize I was hoping this book would be something like a "how-to" manual for converting to Christianity: "How to have that lightning-bolt experience even when you haven't been trying very hard." However, Sara doesn't go much into the "why" of her conversion, because she doesn't really understand it herself. She was instantly converted to Christianity, and instead of having all her doubts removed in a blinding flash, she e
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Oct 24, 2009
Jennifer
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This is the story of unlikely conversion: A radical lesbian activist, who spend much of her youth involved in people's uprisings in Mexico & Central America, one day walks into a church, receives communion, and is transformed. She becomes filled with the idea of "sharing the body," which for her becomes a command to feed the people. Which leads her to setting up a weekly food bank in the church, and then to helping others in the city start new food banks as well, challenging her congre
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Apr 14, 2009
Anita
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In Sara Miles’ “Take this Bread,” the reader boards a turbo-charged, ideology-as-liquid energy -infused romp: from her early days as a an atheist, lesbian, left-wing journalist in war-torn Nicaraugua to her return to the United States and the impoverished inner-city streets of San Francisco, where , after reluctantly but whole-heartedly acknowledging that she feels a deep and all-encompassing call to Christianity and the unequivocal call to action such faith imposes, she single-handedly resolv
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Dec 02, 2010
Aisha
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At the start I really liked this book but after a while she started to get really dull and repetitive. I found I liked a great deal of her open communion theology and he living out the life of Jesus and living her Christianity. But she got to be so repetitive about her entire seeing communion in everything. Over and over and over and over again. Until it just got exasperating. She also is a little too obsessed with her faith after a while. She actually becomes a bit of a fanatic and I do think s
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Nov 17, 2010
Michael
rated it:
Some books I read. Others I inhale. Take This Bread is an example of the later. I have been wanting to read this book for a few years, ever since I saw the author interviewed on Religion and Ethics Newsweekly, so I finally picked up the paperback on Saturday night. I absolutely loved it.
Sara Miles is a far-- f a r --left wing sort of political person who spent the better part of the 1980s actually living with Communist guerrillas and Sandinistas in Central America. She is a gay woman w More...
Sara Miles is a far-- f a r --left wing sort of political person who spent the better part of the 1980s actually living with Communist guerrillas and Sandinistas in Central America. She is a gay woman w More...
Feb 21, 2011
Katie M.
rated it:
A recommendation from my favorite seminarian. At first Miles drove me bonkers - she spends the first half of the book describing all the ways in which brown people like her (they fed her their last bowl of soup in warn-torn Nicaragua! they took her under their wing in working-class New York!), glossing over some sorely-needed class analyses, badmouthing conservative Christians, and just generally being sort of judgey and unlikeable. But then the second part of the book, when the food pantry real
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Oct 13, 2011
Kristjan
rated it: 
Boring, and not particularly well written.
Apparently atheists are supposed to be impressed by the spirituality of this book, but speaking personally I found it uninteresting and unfathomable. Perhaps if I had grown up in a culture soaked in Christianity it would have made more sense, or might have interested me.
Apparently atheists are supposed to be impressed by the spirituality of this book, but speaking personally I found it uninteresting and unfathomable. Perhaps if I had grown up in a culture soaked in Christianity it would have made more sense, or might have interested me.
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Oct 01, 2009
Patty
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This book made me cry. Sara Miles' story is just amazing. Her conversion to Christianity seems almost mythical. How little we understand when we feed ourselves and others Holy Communion. Kudos to St. Gregory's for making sure that all strangers are welcome to their services and most importantly welcome to the Table.
When I grow up - I want to be Sara Miles. I try very hard to be hospitable. I really like making sure that people are fed. But my understanding of "feed my she More...
When I grow up - I want to be Sara Miles. I try very hard to be hospitable. I really like making sure that people are fed. But my understanding of "feed my she More...
Jan 19, 2011
Lee
rated it:
Inspiring, honest, and deeply moving, by the end of Sara's story you'll love this lesbian, left-wing atheist as much as any of the other Christians of God's flock. It's hard to remember a book I enjoyed more.
On a whim one day, Sara walked into a church, ate a bit of bread, sipped a bit of wine, and underwent "a radical conversion." While never overcoming her skepticism about God, she nevertheless embraced the church ... but the Christianity she embraced had no use for angels More...
On a whim one day, Sara walked into a church, ate a bit of bread, sipped a bit of wine, and underwent "a radical conversion." While never overcoming her skepticism about God, she nevertheless embraced the church ... but the Christianity she embraced had no use for angels More...
Oct 13, 2011
Tad
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I found myself very fascinated by this book. Her story of transformation from atheist to Christian seemed to have many parallels with my own faith journey. I liked what she had to say about communion and how much it can represent to many people. I loved her point that Christianity is about relationships because that matches with one of my personal beliefs about the faith as well. I think that Sara Miles and I could sit down and have a great conversation about faith, Christianity, helping others
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Nov 03, 2009
Ellen
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The premise of this book compelled me to request it from the library, and I certainly found parts of it interesting, insightful, and inspiring. But, by about the halfway point, I began feeling like I was reading the same stories and thoughts over and over. At a certain point, it felt like Miles was hitting the reader over the head with her beliefs about communion and Jesus' radical inclusivity, which she feels is most illustrated (then and now) in the breaking of bread. Although Miles is a se
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Feb 02, 2009
Kj
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The subtitle of Sara Miles' spiritual memoir is "a Radical Conversion" and those two words, along with the amazingly entrancing and appetizing peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a cross marked through it that occupies the book cover, pretty much say everything there is to say about this profound and utterly simple book. Miles' story is Radical because she is radical, but also because her revelation is so entirely basic. She's drawn into Christian faith through food- the most basic
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Nov 06, 2009
Kristin
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San Francisco journalist and former atheist Sara Miles tells the story of wondering into St. Gregory's Episcopal Church, being transformed by receiving communication, and starting a food pantry at the church. As I worked at St. Gregory's when I first moved to San Francisco, I've met Sara and enjoyed reading about her and the history of Saint Gregory's. But the real power of this book is Sara's explanation of her faith grounded in action, love, gratitude, and unconditional acceptance. As she w
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Jan 24, 2012
Randomsquirrel42
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I don't cry at books. I may occasionally tear up when, say, a favorite character dies and there's some emotionally wrenching flashback. So it is not a small thing for me to say that this book made me so happy at times that tears welled up. This book was full of love-despite-inevitable-brokenness and community (and San Francisco, the place I love above all others).
This book was a shout-out to those who have only seen the exclusive church. A big sign saying "look! We're here too!" More...
This book was a shout-out to those who have only seen the exclusive church. A big sign saying "look! We're here too!" More...
May 13, 2011
Jessie
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Close to tears for much of my reading; Miles is a luminous voice. She makes the best argument for open communion (Eucharist) I’ve ever heard because it’s not at all an argument but lived experience of nourishment. Seems like a book of radical seeing and recasting of Christian meaning: a Friday food pantry at Saint Gregory’s as Eucharist not as social service, and she’s not shmarmy about it. She also (as a mother) cites birth as a way for her to understand the mystery of incarnation; beautiful
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