As Taste of Buffalo approaches, and with farmer’s markets and Community Share Agriculture in full swing, now seems like the perfect time to think theologically about food.
A theology of food? Really?
Of course. From Kosher, to Halal, to Hindu vegetarianism, to ritual meals, faith and food have been intertwined from the beginning. After all, the first sin–according to the Hebrew Bible–centered around eating the wrong fruit.
The choices we make around the food we eat, the way we eat it, and the people with whom we eat, form us–as individuals and as a community.
When we consider the food we eat, we can ask, “How is it produced? How did it get to me? Is it sustainable? Is it just?” While we may or may not subscribe to a religious dietary code, the ideas behind the codes are helpful for all people: is the food (and/or its means of production) good for the health of the individual and the community? While I cannot spell out the details for you, it is clear that what we choose to eat, and what we choose to not eat, matters.
Closely related to what we eat is the choice of how we eat it. Fortunately for this weekend, there is no specific religious prohibition against multiple, small samples, consumed outdoors. In most traditions, there are times for feasting, and for fasting. Both practices are formative, as are the disciplines of giving thanks for food, serving food, and sharing food. Some meals, (the Seder, the Eucharist, or Thanksgiving dinner, for example) have special meaning built into them–ritual remembrances that are designed to carry into the rest of our life. When we consider how we eat, we can ask, “Am I grateful? Is it a time for celebration? For going without? For sharing?”
Finally, there is a spiritual meaning to the ones you choose to eat with. People bond at a meal. Who do you eat with? Is your meal a time for hospitality? There is a reason that the potluck is an “unofficial sacrament” of so many different communities!
The food we eat, and the way eat it, can be just or unjust, generous or selfish, life-giving, or life-destroying. It’s worth thinking about, and our religious traditions have something to say.
On what do you base your choices of what you eat, how you eat it, and
with whom do you eat? Does your faith have a rite centered on food? How
does that shape you?
For an example of how I believe that Christians are shaped by their ritual meal, you can read my notes from a sermon about it.