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Enacting Christ's Presence in Communal Performances: A Phenomenological Interpretation of the Sixteenth-Century Anabaptist Love Feast

In this article, we analyze the structure of the sixteenth-century Anabaptist love feast as a practice of intensive identity formation. The dynamics of the Anabaptists' identity formation must be understood in relation to their internal, communal performances as well as the external pressures exerted upon them by the "Magisterial" churches, both Catholic and Reformed, and the governing forces of the state.' The traditional academic perception of Anabaptists, which views them as a sectarian group according to Ernst Troeltsch's typology, addresses only the external sources of Anabaptist constructions of identity? Our analysis focuses on the internal sources by looking at the three communal performances of the Anabaptist love feast-footwashing, agape meal, and communion-as expressions of how the Anabaptists understood their own identity and the sources of their religious inspiration. Through an examination of the writings of sixteenth-century Anabaptists, we argue that the three performances that constitute the Anabaptist love feast were rooted in medieval mysticism and guided by an attempt to enact and collectively consummate an identity in Christ. In their understandings of the practices performed in the love feast, Anabaptists distinguished their liturgies from many late medieval Catholic liturgies-which were sacramental mediations of grace as