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)

9781108455961, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 29 November 2018

338 pages
22.7 x 15.1 x 2 cm, 0.49 kg

'a very rich book that raises questions of farming and agriculture in a detailed way, along with ethical and theological debates ... Food and Faith brings up a lot of relevant and highly urgent topics and rightly puts them on the theological agenda. It is an important contribution to theological debates in the area of the Anthropocene.' Erica Meijers, Journal of Reformed Theology

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]