I'm Christa Tippett.

From the earliest days, communion was among the most

mysterious of Christian practices to outsiders.

But the word Eucharist simply means Thanksgiving.

Eucharist, communion, and the Lord's Supper are different

words to describe the ritual of Thanksgiving

that formed around shared meals in early Christian homes.

This hour, we'll revisit that history

and consider what meaning communion might have ethically

and socially in our time.

From American public media, this is speaking of faith,

public radio's conversation about religion, meaning, ethics,

and ideas.

Today, at table, the meaning of communion.

In recent years, Dan Brown's novel, The Da Vinci Code,

sparked popular interest in the story

behind Leonardo da Vinci's painting, The Last Supper,

which was, in some sense, the first communion.

In a very different vein, the sacrament of communion

became politicized in the 2004 presidential election

when a few bishops declared that Senator John Kerry

should not be allowed to take communion

...