Food and Faith
A Theology of Eating

'I strongly recommended the first edition of Food and Faith. I recommend the second edition with even more enthusiasm. Not only are there careful revisions throughout, there are critical new chapters. Science is rapidly changing our understanding of ourselves as complex creatures, and the advent of the Anthropocene promises to alter everything - the planet's dynamics itself, and certainly culture and agriculture. Wirzba's cutting edge attention to these gives this new edition even more significance and more traction.' Larry Rasmussen, Reinhold Niebuhr Professor Emeritus of Social Ethics, Union Theological Seminary, New York City

'Food and Faith is undoubtedly the quintessential theological work on eating, but Norman Wirzba's vision extends far beyond the food we put in our mouths. His careful thinking orients us toward living healthfully and well within the interconnected life of God's creation.' C. Christopher Smith, founding editor of The Englewood Review of Books, and co-author of Slow Church: Cultivating Community in the Patient Way of Jesus

'Human eating practices have never been more disordered than they are today. Systems of modern industrial food production sustain billions of lives on this planet, but many still go to bed hungry, while others suffer from a surfeit of cheap, highly processed foods. Wirzba wisely reminds us that more technology cannot finally save us here. Instead, he invites us to taste and see that the Lord is good. Food, he tells us, is God's love made edible. Sharing meals together, we glimpse a foretaste of heaven. Our very bodies are sites of nurture for myriad organisms, and we are privileged to be capable of glimpsing our own lives and deaths as participating in nature's unfolding round of relationality. Will we respond to the call to participate in God's own Trinitarian life of hospitality, communion, and care? Will we make eating a spiritual practice? A beautiful and transformative book.' Jennifer A. Herdt, Gilbert L. Stark Professor of Christian Ethics, Yale Divinity School

'Norman Wirzba is a gift and this book is one of the best you'll read this year. The thoughtfulness, the insight, the depth in these pages will revolutionize the way you think about every meal, every person you break bread with, every morsel that sustains you. Highly recommended!' Margaret Feinberg, author of Taste and See: Discovering God among Butchers, Bakers, and Fresh Food Makers

'Food and Faith is a modern classic in serious Christian theological ethics, and even better in its new second edition. Wirzba offers here a magisterial, comprehensive work that can transform not only how Christians think about food but how we think about agriculture, community, death, covenant, Eucharist, heaven, scripture, and Jesus himself. A fine example of what can happen when a trained theologian committed to practicing the way of Jesus determines to address a significant but neglected issue in human life. I highly recommend this book.' David P. Gushee, Director of the Center for Theology and Public Life, Mercer University and President of the American Academy of Religion

'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