Food Faith

A comprehensive theological framework for assessing the significance of eating, demonstrating that eating is of profound economic, moral and theological significance.

Orthodox Christians fast approximately half the days of the year. But in our food-obsessed society, how do we determine our approach to eating in general? Nutritional expert Rita Madden expands on her popular podcast to help us eat in a way that is healthful for both our bodies and our souls--in times of fasting, feasting, and the ordinary days in between. Includes recipes.

Stir Up Some Food, Fun & Faith in the Kitchen Grab your apron and a friend or two and cook up some tasty treats and yummy eats. With step-by-step instructions and photos good enough to make your mouth water, this cookbook helps you master simple recipes, impressive main courses, and elegant deserts, including: Homemade Hot Pretzels Toffee Tarts White Chicken Chili Mango Chicken Quesadillas Best Friend Cupcakes Soups, smoothies, holiday recipes, and much more—some contributed from other Faithgirlz just like you. Plus, you’ll also experience cooking as a memory-making, God-honoring, wonderful way to share and serve delicious food with those you love. So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. —1 Corinthians 10:31

Consumerism, unsustainable growth, waste and inequalities continue to ail societies across the globe, but creative collectives have been tackling these issues at a grassroots level. Based on an autoethnographic study about a free food store in Aotearoa New Zealand, this book presents a first-hand account of how a community is organized around surplus food to deal with food poverty, while also helping the reader to see through the complexity that brings the free food store to life. Examining how alternative economies and relations emerge from these community solutions, the author shows it is possible to think, act and organize differently within and beyond capitalist dynamics.

Food has always been central to religious practice. From fasting at Ramadan to feasting at Diwali, from the laws of kashrut to the taking of communion, a great deal can be learned about a religion through an understanding of its link with food. Six children from six religions tell their stories through words and photographs. The text is in the first person with each child speaking directly to the reader, making an engaging and visually appealing introduction to this important aspect of religion. The book covers six major religions: Judaism, Islam, Sikhism, Hinduism, Christianity and Buddhism and looks at celebrations, rules, fasting, and food and drink in rituals. Also included are authentic recipes for pancakes, honey cake, pakoras, coconut barfi and puris. All the children featured are from the respective religions and cultural background. The book has been developed with the help of expert consultants from each religion.

How do women express individual agency when engaging in seemingly prescribed or approved practices such as religious fasting? How are sectarian identities played out in the performance of food piety? What do food practices tell us about how women negotiate changes in family relationships? This collection offers a variety of distinct perspectives on these questions. Organized thematically, areas explored include the subordination of women, the nature of resistance, boundary making and the construction of identity and community. Methodologically, the essays use imaginative reconstructions of women's experiences, particularly where the only accounts available are written by men. The essays focus on Hindus and Muslims in South Asia, Sri Lankan Buddhist women and South Asians in the diaspora in the US and UK. Pioneering new research into food and gender roles in South Asia, this will be of use to students of food studies, sociology, anthropology and cultural studies.

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. Featuring never-before published essays, this anthology follows the intersection of food and faith from the fourteenth to the twenty-first century, charting the complex relationship among religious eating habits and politics, culture, and social structure. 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.

Recounts the author's experiences founding a faith-based community garden in rural North Carolina, and emphasizes how growing one's own food can help readers reconnect with the land and divine faith.