Home Religion, Bible and Theology Historical Background to Food and Christianity
Chapter
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Historical Background to Food and Christianity

View more publications by Columbia University Press
To Publisher Page
Food and Faith in Christian Culture
This chapter is in the book Food and Faith in Christian Culture
HISTORICAL BACKGROUNDTO FOODAND CHRISTIANITY Ken Albala Most of the world’s major religions have adopted, if not an explicit code of food taboos, then a conscious attitude toward modes of eating and rituals surrounding consumption and prescribed forms of sac-rifi ce. We fi nd complex rules of kashrut at the core of Judaic worship, veneration of the cow among Hindus, set periods of fasting and forbid-den foods among Muslims, and vegetarianism among devout Buddhists. Food prohibitions and celebrations serve many functions: to distinguish believers within defi ned communities and to cement their social bonds through common ritualized practice, to purify the body and soul through abstinence, or simply to off er up one’s own sustenance to the gods as an act of worship. It should come as no surprise that food, being at the cen-ter of every human’s daily experience of life, should be fi rmly embedded in every faith’s defi nition of religiosity. The act of ingestion and digestion involves the incorporation of food into our own fl esh. What we eat literally becomes us, and we become it. Logically, therefore, food is among the most powerful expressions of identity, both for the individual and the group. Controlling one’s diet and restricting intake can be a direct parallel of the eff ort to control other aspects of one’s life and often comprises an entire ideology of consump-tion, a regimen or lifestyle that is a direct expression of one’s values and worldview. How we eat, what we eat, and with whom are the most fun-damental refl ections of who we are physically, emotionally, and spiritu-preludeC5683.indb 7C5683.indb 710/26/11 7:19 AM10/26/11 7:19 AM

HISTORICAL BACKGROUNDTO FOODAND CHRISTIANITY Ken Albala Most of the world’s major religions have adopted, if not an explicit code of food taboos, then a conscious attitude toward modes of eating and rituals surrounding consumption and prescribed forms of sac-rifi ce. We fi nd complex rules of kashrut at the core of Judaic worship, veneration of the cow among Hindus, set periods of fasting and forbid-den foods among Muslims, and vegetarianism among devout Buddhists. Food prohibitions and celebrations serve many functions: to distinguish believers within defi ned communities and to cement their social bonds through common ritualized practice, to purify the body and soul through abstinence, or simply to off er up one’s own sustenance to the gods as an act of worship. It should come as no surprise that food, being at the cen-ter of every human’s daily experience of life, should be fi rmly embedded in every faith’s defi nition of religiosity. The act of ingestion and digestion involves the incorporation of food into our own fl esh. What we eat literally becomes us, and we become it. Logically, therefore, food is among the most powerful expressions of identity, both for the individual and the group. Controlling one’s diet and restricting intake can be a direct parallel of the eff ort to control other aspects of one’s life and often comprises an entire ideology of consump-tion, a regimen or lifestyle that is a direct expression of one’s values and worldview. How we eat, what we eat, and with whom are the most fun-damental refl ections of who we are physically, emotionally, and spiritu-preludeC5683.indb 7C5683.indb 710/26/11 7:19 AM10/26/11 7:19 AM

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents v
  3. Introduction 1
  4. Historical Background to Food and Christianity 7
  5. 1. The Urban Influence. Shopping and Consumption at the Florentine Monastery of Santa Trinità in the Mid-Fourteenth Century 21
  6. 2. The Ideology of Fasting in the Reformation Era 41
  7. 3. “The Food Police”: Sumptuary Prohibitions on Food in the Reformation 59
  8. 4. Dirty Things: Bread, Maize, Women, and Christian Identity in Sixteenth-Century America 83
  9. 5. Enlightened Fasting: Religious Conviction, Scientific Inquiry, and Medical Knowledge in Early Modern France 105
  10. 6. The Sanctity of Bread: Missionaries and the Promotion of Wheat Growing Among the New Zealand Maori 125
  11. 7. Commensality and Love Feast: The Agape Meal in the Late Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Brethren in Christ Church 147
  12. 8. Metaphysics and Meatless Meals: Why Food Mattered When the Mind Was Everything 171
  13. 9. Fasting and Food Habits in the Eastern Orthodox Church 189
  14. 10. Divine Dieting: A Cultural Analysis of Christian Weight Loss Programs 205
  15. 11. Eating in Silence in an English Benedictine Monastery 221
  16. Bibliography 239
  17. Index 253
Readers are also interested in:
https://doi.org/10.7312/alba14996-002

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents v
  3. Introduction 1
  4. Historical Background to Food and Christianity 7
  5. 1. The Urban Influence. Shopping and Consumption at the Florentine Monastery of Santa Trinità in the Mid-Fourteenth Century 21
  6. 2. The Ideology of Fasting in the Reformation Era 41
  7. 3. “The Food Police”: Sumptuary Prohibitions on Food in the Reformation 59
  8. 4. Dirty Things: Bread, Maize, Women, and Christian Identity in Sixteenth-Century America 83
  9. 5. Enlightened Fasting: Religious Conviction, Scientific Inquiry, and Medical Knowledge in Early Modern France 105
  10. 6. The Sanctity of Bread: Missionaries and the Promotion of Wheat Growing Among the New Zealand Maori 125
  11. 7. Commensality and Love Feast: The Agape Meal in the Late Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Brethren in Christ Church 147
  12. 8. Metaphysics and Meatless Meals: Why Food Mattered When the Mind Was Everything 171
  13. 9. Fasting and Food Habits in the Eastern Orthodox Church 189
  14. 10. Divine Dieting: A Cultural Analysis of Christian Weight Loss Programs 205
  15. 11. Eating in Silence in an English Benedictine Monastery 221
  16. Bibliography 239
  17. Index 253
Sign up now to receive a 20% welcome discount
Institutional Access
How does access work?
Have an idea on how to improve our website?
Please write us.
© 2025 De Gruyter Brill
Downloaded on 23.9.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.7312/alba14996-002/html?srsltid=AfmBOorhNdrW2yMnomDzmvVOgENF8jdz5Og6mntahq-75nFpccfO7W5g
Scroll to top button