Alimentary Theology: Notes on Food, Faith, and the King’s Feast
Theologically speaking, food is part of the connective tissue of the covenant community. The Bible begins and ends with a shared meal - the first a disastrous, one-course affair (Genesis 3) and the latter a magnificent wedding celebration (Revelation 19). In between these, God saved his people from slavery and death via a meal (Exodus 12), ate and drank with the elders of Israel (Exodus 24:9-11), and rescued his people from annihilation by a series of feasts (Esther). Jesus established the new covenant with a meal (Matthew 26), often taught, made disciples, and performed miracles at the table (see Luke 14-15). Even his resurrection epiphany to the Emmaus Road disciples occurred over the breaking of bread.
Nourishing relational connections and faith - whether with staff members, officers, church members, or community leaders - is central to my work; hospitality is a required activity of those who serve as church leaders (1 Timothy 3:2). Whether I’m cooking at home (I have a very large cookbook collection under the heading of “Practical Theology”), or meeting someone for soup and salad, the Biblical data indicates why that is so. Christianity is a faith rooted at the Table, and alimentary theology is at the heart of the Bible’s story. History reaches its end when God sets a feast for his people on his holy mountain, and as we feast on the finest fare, he "swallows up death" forever (Isaiah 25:6-9).
Here are some notes I’ve made over the years about “alimentary theology” that some readers might find helpful. Whether grilling burgers or serving a Beef Wellington, I hope our shared food will deepen the bonds of family, friendship, neighborliness, and Gospel community.
al·i·men·ta·ry
/ˌaləˈmen(t)ərē/
adjective
relating to nourishment or sustenance.
“Cooking is the oldest of all arts: Adam was born hungry, and every new child… utters cries which only his mother’s breast can quiet.” - Jean Anthelme Brillat Savarin
“Centuries of secularism have failed to transform eating into something strictly utilitarian. Food is still treated with reverence…To eat is still something more than to maintain bodily functions. People may not understand what that ‘something more’ is, but they nonetheless desire to celebrate it. They are still hungry and thirsty for sacramental life.” ― Alexander Schmemann, For the Life of the World
Christ is the bread, awaiting hunger.- St Augustine
When you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind…– Jesus, Luke 14
Blessed is the one who will dine in the Kingdom of God -A Disciple, Luke 14
This man receives sinners and eats with them. -Jesus’ Opponents, Luke 15
Then the King will say… Come you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat… - Jesus, -Matthew 25
I am the Living Bread -Jesus, John 6
She took him, and wrapped him in cloths, and laid him in a manger (food trough) - Luke 2
I. Creation: Arriving Hungry Genesis 2:7-9, 14-17
● The Imago Dei arrives in history not as a hunter-gatherer or wandering exile nomad but as a cultivator of the ground
● Humans are “Upright Omnivores who Prepare Food”
-Omnivores: incisor teeth for cutting into fruit, molars to crush seeds, and canines to tear meat
-Taste Buds: About 10,000 (dogs, 1700; cats, 475), which means we have highly flexible, demanding palates that we employ to discern beauty and, by this, pleasure and relational status (this includes texture, aroma, the place of sight, as well as taste in the more formal sense).
● Food then is more than mere fuel. Food is artistry born of love and, therefore, communion with another. Preparing and presenting food is offering myself and my ‘taste’ to you in love and grace. Moreover, I become what I eat, so sharing food is receiving and sharing life.
● “Thy words were found, and I ate them, and they became to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart.” Jeremiah 15:16
Christ refused the temptation to turn stones into bread not because hunger was illegitimate but because he was the only stone that could become true bread for the hungry.
II. Fall: Eating Dust - Genesis 3:16, 14, 17
● “The Two pillars of modern eating are the restaurant and the recipe book…In the mythic world of the nineteenth century, the restaurant existed to coax women into having sex; the recipe book to coax men into staying home.” Adam Gopnik
● What’s Eating You?? The cursed serpent went along the ground, “eating dust” - the stuff of humanity - and we are rescued from being his food by the grace and mercy of God given to us in Christ, the bread of life.
III. Redemption: Hospitality, or Food as Grace Exodus 12; Exodus 24:9-11; Leviticus 9:24; 2 Samuel 9; 1 Kings 19; Matthew 26; Luke 15
● “God has compassion on Elijah…and gives him cake. And lets him sleep. And then gives him more cake. God knows what we need far more than we do, and often our true needs are embarrassingly mundane. It is humiliating to hear that sometimes, when we think we are wrestling with angels, we are mainly just tired and hungry, or that the sensation of drowning in oceans of guilt is mostly just a hangover. The worst attack of anxiety we can experience may be in the end the product of a couple of temporary chemical reactions in the chest and stomach. And at the end of John’s Gospel, Jesus meets Simon Peter, absolves him of guilt for his three denials, sets his life task ahead of him, and predicts his painful death. But before any of this, he says, ‘Come and have breakfast.” Simeon Zahl
IV. Justification and Sanctification: A Well-Seasoned Life Matthew 4:4; 5:13; Luke 14:34; Colossians 4:6; Acts 10; Galatians 5:15
● The pursuit of spices reshaped history, launching the Europeans into the Middle East and the Far East in search of taste
-The Trade Routes, in turn, carried messages and messengers
● People are Food: are we giving ourselves as bread or consuming one another?
“Be careful lest you bite and devour one another!”
– Taken, Blessed, Broken, and Given: these words from the wilderness feast of five loaves and two fish, sacramental words in which Christ offers himself to us, are also discipleship words, noting how grace transforms us: Christ takes us, blesses us, breaks us, and give us.
V. Glorification: Feasting as Eschatological Beauty Isaiah 25; Revelation 19:6-9
● In her remarkable Harry Potter series, JK Rowling vividly creates the Death Eaters, servants of Lord Voldemort, devoted to the destruction of muggles and traitors. The prophecy about Harry says that a boy will be born to overthrow the Lord of Death and his servants. It’s a universal hope that finds its authentic fulfillment in Christ’s death and resurrection, his death-consuming death, and bringing about the Feast of Life on the Mountain of the Lord. Voldemort’s death occurs when the curse he hurled at Harry rebounded onto him. And so it is. Let the Feast continue until the Day when it is celebrated in all splendor.
● “It will be precisely because we loved Jerusalem enough to bear it in our bones that its textures will ascend when we rise. It will be because our eyes have relished the earth that the color of its countries will compel our hearts forever. The bread and the pastry, the cheeses, wines, and the songs go into the Supper of the Lamb because we do: Our love brings the City home.”
-Robert Farrar Capon, The Supper of the Lamb: A Culinary Reflection
What, then, shall we say to these things?
1. Banish Protestant Gnosticism and Rejoice in Ordinary Grace
2. Live Eucharistically and Celebrate the Feast
3. Eat Responsibly Caring for Creation
4. Prepare and Share food in Love, and Present it with an Eye to Beauty
5. Remember to Fast and to Give to Others
Addendum One: The FiveFold Feasts of Esther
I. Creation: Feast of the King Esther 1
II. Fall: Eating the Ash Esther 4
III. Redemption Banquet of Grace Esther 5:14 (“On the third day…”)
IV. Vindication Banquet Esther 5:5-8; 6:12-14;7:1-10;8:15-17
V. Glorification Banquet Esther 9
Addendum Two: The Ten Feasts of Luke
I. Levi’s Banquet 5:27-39
II. Dinner with Simon the Pharisee 7:36-50
III. Breaking Bread at Bethsaida 9:10-17
IV. Mary and Martha 10:38-42
V. Midday Meal with a Pharisee 11:37-54
VI. Sabbath Supper with a Pharisee 14:1-24
VII. Feasting with Zacchaeus 19:1-10
VIII. The Last Supper 23:7-38
IX. Breaking Bread at Emmaus 24:13-35
X. Feast of the Resurrection Community 24:36-49