Theology on the Menu Asceticism, Meat and Christian Diet [Paperback]

Food - what we eat, how much we eat, how it is produced and prepared, and its cultural and ecological significance- is an increasingly significant topic not only for scholars but for all of us. Theology on the Menuis the first systematic and historical assessment of Christian attitudes to food and its role in shaping Christian identity. David Grumett and Rachel Muers unfold a fascinating history of feasting and fasting, food regulations and resistance to regulation, the symbolism attached to particular foods, the relationship between diet and doctrine, and how food has shaped inter-religious encounters. Everyone interested in Christian approaches to food and diet or seeking to understand how theology can engage fruitfully with everyday life will find this book a stimulus and an inspiration.

Acknowledgments  Preface  1. Eating in the Wilderness  2. Food in the Ordered City  3. Secularizing Diet  4. Fasting by Choice  5. Clean and Unclean Animals  6. Community, Heresy and Orthodoxy  7. Sacrifice and Slaughter  8. Christian Food, Heavenly Food, Worldly Food  9. Concluding Reflections  Select Bibliography  Index

 

'A new generation of British theologians is taking the debate over diet to the highest levels of scholarly and moral reflection, and Grumett and Muers are leading the way. Rather than trying to score points or pick fights, they demonstrate how food lies at the intersection of the spiritual and the material, and they offer their readers the tools, including the historical context, to make eating one of the primary tasks of thinking. This is now the book to read in seminary and college courses in moral theology, or simply to deepen your own practice of thoughtful eating.'  Stephen Webb, Wabash College, USA

GlÓ<