Without
a uniform dietary code, Christians around the world used food in
strikingly different ways, developing widely divergent practices that
spread, nurtured, and strengthened their religious beliefs and
communities.
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Featuring
never-before published essays, this anthology follows the
intersection of food and faith from the 14th to the 21st
century.
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Theoretically rich and full of engaging portraits, essays consider the
rise of food buying and consumerism in the fourteenth century, the
Reformation ideology of fasting and its resulting sanctions against
sumptuous eating, the gender and racial politics of sacramental food
production in colonial America, and the struggle to define
"enlightened" Lenten dietary restrictions in early modern France.
Essays on the nineteenth century explore the religious implications of
wheat growing and breadmaking among New Zealand's Maori population and
the revival of the Agape meal, or love feast, among American brethren
in Christ Church.
Twentieth-century topics include the metaphysical
significance of vegetarianism, the function of diet in Greek Orthodoxy,
American Christian weight loss programs, and the practice of silent
eating rituals among English Benedictine monks.
Two introductory essays
detail the key themes tying these essays together and survey food's
role in developing and disseminating the teachings of Christianity, not
to mention providing a tangible experience of faith. |
Food and Faith in Christian Culture
by Ken Albala and Trudy Eden
Columbia University Press,
2011
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