Christians in the United States are on a quest for good food. And yet, at every turn, they confront brokenness in the food system. Access to healthy food is not secure. Farmers and laborers struggle to find meaningful agricultural work that pays a livable wage. Animals and the land are abused. At the public policy level, legislation has increasingly favored mass-produced products in order to provide the largest amount of food to the greatest number of people at the lowest possible prices-regardless of the consequences. Unable to trace the sources of their food, and perhaps even the ingredients, consumers are vulnerable to a deep and abiding alienation. Still, many religions, including the Christian tradition, orient themselves around the table, a site for connection and nourishment. Good Food is a practical theology grounded in a rich ethnographic study of the food practices of diverse faith communities and populations. In the midst of the wounded food system's woundedness and harm, they are hopeful but not naive, and in their imaginative work, the seeds for a thriving food system are taking root. Grounded in unflinching analysis and encompassing both theological and moral implications, Ayres examines actual religious practices of food justice, discovering in the process a grounded theology for food. Ayres challenges Christians to participate in communal initiatives that will make a real difference-to support local farmers, grow their own food, and advocate for fair food policies. Good Food equips readers with the theological and practical tools needed to safeguard that which sustains us: food.
Jennifer R. Ayres is Associate Professor of Religious Education, Candler School of Theology, Emory University. A frequent writer on faith formation and food justice, she is the author of Waiting for a Glacier to Move: Practicing Social Witness. She lives in the Atlanta, Georgia area.
Preface Introduction A Grounded Practical Theology of Food Part I 1 Primer on the Global Food System People, Places, Planet 2 Primer on the Global Food System Policies 3 Making Room at the Table A Theology and Ethics of Food Part II 4 Church-Supported Farming Building Relationships and Supporting Sustainable Agriculture 5 Growing Food From Food Insecurity to Food Sovereignty 6 Transformative Travel Education, Encountering the Other, and Political Advocacy 7 Vocational Sustainability Agriculture and Ingenuity on the College Farm Conclusion: Unearthing Beauty Everyday Visionaries and Hope for the Food System Notes Bibliography Index
Good Food is a very good book, one of the very best introductions both to the problems of our current food system and to the deep Christian sources of some of the solutions to those problems. --Loren Wilkinson, Regent College "Theology Today" Caught in a bad system yet hoping for an eschatological feast, we must both endure and repair, repent and rejoice, theologize more honestly, and act more faithfully. Ayres shows us the way. --D Brent Laytham "The Christian Century" Preachers and homileticians will find Good Food to be informative, persuasive, and pragmatic for crafting theological responses in classrooms, pulpits, and the public sphere to food insecurity at multiple registers. --Gerald C. Liu, The Theological School, Drew University "Homiletic" This scholarly book ought to be read by practical theologians, ethicists, those engaged in teaching the arts of ministry, and all those committed (or vehemently opposed) to doing theology by engaging lived human experience in grounded ways. --Kate Lassiter, Mount St. Joseph University "Interpretation"
