Food and Faith
A Theology of Eating

Provides a comprehensive theological framework in which good eating contributes to the healing of communities and the world.

Norman Wirzba (Author)

9781108470414, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 29 November 2018

338 pages
23.5 x 15.5 x 2.3 cm, 0.6 kg

'Food and Faith is a modern classic in serious Christian theological ethics, and even better in its new second edition. Wirzba offers here a magisterial, comprehensive work that can transform not only how Christians think about food but how we think about agriculture, community, death, covenant, Eucharist, heaven, scripture, and Jesus himself. A fine example of what can happen when a trained theologian committed to practicing the way of Jesus determines to address a significant but neglected issue in human life. I highly recommend this book.' David P. Gushee, Director of the Center for Theology and Public Life, Mercer University and President of the American Academy of Religion

This book provides a comprehensive theological framework for assessing the significance of eating. Drawing on diverse theological, philosophical, and anthropological insights, it offers fresh ways to evaluate food production and consumption practices as they are being worked out in today's industrial food economy. Unlike books that focus primarily on vegetarianism and hunger-related concerns, this book broadens the scope of consideration to include the sacramental character of eating, the deep significance of hospitality, the meaning of death and sacrifice, the Eucharist as the place of inspiration and orientation, the importance of saying grace, and the possibility of eating in heaven. Throughout, eating is presented as a way of enacting fidelity between persons, between people and fellow creatures, and between people and Earth. Food and Faith demonstrates that eating is of profound economic, moral, and spiritual significance. Revised throughout, this edition includes a new introduction and two chapters, as well as updated bibliography. The additions add significantly to the core idea of creaturely membership and hospitality through discussion of the microbiome revolution in science, and the daunting challenge of the Anthropocene.

Introduction: who is the you that eats?
1. It's about fidelity
2. Thinking theologically about food
3. The 'roots' of eating: our life together in gardens
4. Eating in exile: dysfunction in the world of food
5. Life through death: sacrificial eating
6. Eucharistic table manners: eating toward communion
7. Saying Grace
8. Eating in heaven? Consummating communion
Epilogue. Faithful eating in an anthropocene world.

Subject Areas: Conservation of the environment [RNK], Theology [HRLB], Religious ethics [HRAM1]