A living sacrament of unity or a bone of contention between religious denominations? The Lord's Supper (or the Eucharist) was from the very beginning a pivotal distinguishing feature of Christianity. This volume deals with its historical origins, the importance attached to it, the controversies involved as well as the variety of present forms of the Lord's Supper. In addition, it provides an answer from the perspective of Protestant theology to the question of how the presence of Christ can be seen today in the Lord's Supper. The relationship to the communal meals in Israel (for example the feast of the Passover) and other ceremonial meals in antiquity completes the pictures from the perspective of religious and cultural studies. Thus the authors provide a comprehensive impression of the current research on the Lord's Supper inside and outside of theology in a readily comprehensible form and give a great deal of information for those wishing to deal in more detail with this subject.