Eves / Martin / Phillips Thoughtful Eating

Food, relationships and the environment from a biblical perspective
1. Auflage 2023
ISBN: 978-94-92697-34-9
Verlag: Sallux Publishing
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 124 Seiten

Eating is never a solitary act; each meal connects us profoundly to food chains, precious resources, human effort, a global ecology and graced provision. How does the food we eat affect the planet? What is a biblical response to environmental degradation, and how can we eat in a way that honours God? This book addresses the high environmental and social costs of modern food systems and provides theological reflections on the interconnected relationships between God, humanity and the non-human creation. By developing an extensive theology of food and eating, it suggests practical applications for individuals, organisations and policymakers, and proposes a framework for thoughtful eating so that we can learn to eat joyfully, relationally and sustainably. This book is widely and carefully-researched, biblically-rooted, judiciously balanced and yet will challenge you to re-evaluate what and how you eat. Food is not just fuel, but spiritually, socially and ecologically laden with meaning. A renewed relationship with food can transform our relationships with ourselves, our neighbours, the wider creation and even with God. Reading this will show you how. Dave Bookless, Director of Theology, A Rocha International

A biblical perspective on food, relationships and the environment. By Hannah Eves, Katherine Martin, Andrew Phillips, Peter Redmayne.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Eves, Hannah

Martin, Katharine

Phillips, Andrew

Redmayne, Peter

Leseproben

Introduction

Consider the humble brownie.

A brownie is a collection of fairly common household baking ingredients – flour, eggs, milk, cocoa powder, butter and chocolate, mixed together, and then baked. A brownie might be enjoyed over conversation in a coffee shop; or at your desk as a treat after lunch; or served warm, fresh and gooey straight from the oven. The best brownies are dense and sweet, with chunks of extra chocolate or crunchy nuts added for texture and flavour. But the brownie has a more profound story than we often realise, a story which includes the barista, the manufacturer, the supermarket worker, the home-baker. The story goes still further: from the soil, to plants, to animals, and to people. Yet eating food, even a delicious brownie, can often seem mundane or ordinary – an everyday, unimportant activity.

But a pause for reflection and contemplation reveals more of the wonder of food and eating. It is a physical, corporeal necessity, yet it brings us joy. Our mouths and senses do not just consume food, but savour it. To share food with others is a significant way to experience relational connection, through celebrations and hospitality, in fellowship and community. A brownie is a product of a set of processes by which raw ingredients are turned into something delicious. Those ingredients themselves all have their own stories – the flour milled from grain grown in soil, the sugar extracted from sugar beet, the eggs laid by chickens, the butter and milk from the cow. The cocoa beans were grown in countries far away, by people we will never know, and were imported via global trade networks. Think of all the people involved in the process – those who have planted, farmed, harvested, processed, packaged, shipped, distributed and sold all the different ingredients. When we bite into a brownie, we enter a vast web of relationships between all these people involved in the supply chain. And beyond that, we enter into a relationship with the environment: we enjoy grains, vegetables, and dairy products, which are all results of incredibly complex natural processes. We rely every day on soil, air, water, seeds, insects, birds, animals, bacteria – whole ecosystems which sustain our life through food. Yet we often fail to eat thoughtfully: instead we rush, we hurry, we consume, we eat mindlessly and thoughtlessly.

Humanity has become increasingly aware of the damage inflicted on the environment by our collective actions. This is particularly true of global food systems, which are often responsible for environmental degradation on a huge scale. As a result, there is increasing media and cultural interest in food systems’ environmental impact, with calls for large scale dietary changes and a transformation of food and eating. This book seeks to address some of these issues, and argues that the fundamental need is a change of mindset: from eating without thought for the context, relationships and impact of our food to thoughtful eating.

The four authors are from the UK and Ireland, and we have particularly addressed the UK context, although we also examine the global nature of modern food systems. We write from a Christian perspective, and consequently throughout this book we draw on texts from the Bible for inspiration and guidance. In this process, two important and inter-related concepts have influenced our writing. The first of these is Relational Thinking...