Whether fasting or feasting, whether in formal liturgy or around the family table, the practices of eating and drinking have for millennia been seen as religiously significant and even a means of participating in God s own being. Today, phenomena of anorexia and bulimia, weight control and obesity, and world hunger call us to revisit this rich source of religious reflection.
Elizabeth Groppe's work is neither sentimental nor oppressive but instead an affirmation that our eating practices shape who we are as persons and our relationships with each other and God. Her work includes specific analysis of how food figures in our present cultural and global context, how it has been understood in Christian history and theology, and how it might creatively feed our spiritual lives today.