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Food And Faith: A Theology Of Eating (2011)

by Norman Wirzba(Favorite Author)

4.19 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0521195500 (ISBN13: 9780521195508)

languge

English

genre

Food & Cookbooks

publisher

Cambridge University Press

review 1: Food is sort of my thing right now. After reflecting on the life of Jesus and the reality in Luke's gospel that Christ is, quite literally, always at a meal, I began to re-think the importance of eating, food, and meals in my own life. Reading Robert Farrar Capon's "The Supper of the Lamb" was a huge, tiny mistake; I'm on the path to becoming a total foodie. Worse than that, I'm convinced it's biblical. It sounds ludicrous, I know. But Norman Wirzba's outstanding work, Food & Faith: a Theology of Eating, has me persuaded. This is my first Wirzba book and it will not be my last. It's difficult in our Amazon.com-era to find theology that is insightful, well-written, draws from various, creative sources, and that doesn't completely bore you to death. Most stuff that passes fo... morer Christian reading (even among Reformed-types) is desperately wanting. It is incredibly delightful to find a book that makes me think, takes me out of my little, joke of a world, and for a moment gives me a vision for truth, goodness, and beauty. Food & Faith is the kind of theology Christians should be reading. After an introduction on the importance and necessity of "thinking theologically about food," Wirzba looks at our daily practice of eating through the lens of Creation, Fall, Redemption, & Consummation. Covenantal thinkers will love this trajectory and recognize immediately the important role our food's narration plays in why we eat, how we eat, what we eat, and with whom we eat. So, if our world, our food, and us are a random collection of molecules and chemical processes, then the world has no inherent meaning and value cannot be trusted. A random world should inspire no awe. But if this world, our daily bread, and our lives is the overflow of a loving, eternal Trinitarian communion of Persons, then we might begin to see the contours of a vision for what relationships between creatures (my meal, its sources, and me) ought to be. Once we name and narrate the drama of food we begin to see, love, and care for the material, biological, social, and divine sources that feed into every mouthful. I relished in and struggled with this book. I was reminded of just how much God loves this tangible, physical earth. I heard facts about the way God's gift of creation (land, animals, people) is often misused and abused due to sin. I was led to repent of the way I haven't cared for God's world or neglected to thank and celebrate Him through His gifts. I was taught a new way of considering sacrifice and reminded of how life ultimately does come through death. I was encouraged to yet again find my place in the eucharistic, eating assembly of the Church. I was given the best explanation of why we "say grace" before meals. I was invited to think about a new creation, free from the toxic effects of the Fall, where the feast and wedding banquet of Jesus will go on for eternity. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
review 2: This is an interesting book (and so beautifully written!) that proposes a different perspective -for the most part- of food and faith than the one I hold. I learned, however, some good things and was once more challenged to see the meals we share -each one of them- as gifts from the hand of a Trinitarian God. The weakest point in the author's argument in favor of a more "ecological life" is that it seems that he sees men only as part of the creation order, as "members" of it, as part of the ecosystem; but fails to emphasize the Creation Mandate given to men at the beginning to exercise dominion over the created world. Some lines and paragraphs I kept in my commonplace because they are worth re-visiting later.Oh, and I almost forgot to mention the cover! I love it! less

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