The Theology of Food: Eating and the Eucharist, by Angel F. Méndez Montoya, published in the Illuminations series, is now available in paperback. [Purchase US | Purchase UK]

The links between religion and food have been known for centuries, and yet we rarely examine or understand the nature of the relationship between food and spirituality, or food and sin. Drawing on literature, politics, and philosophy as well as theology, this book unlocks the role food has played, and shows religion in a new and illuminating light.

• A fascinating book tracing the centuries-old links between theology and food, showing religion in a new and intriguing light

• Draws on examples from different religions: the significance of the apple in the Christian Bible and the eating of bread as the body of Christ; the eating and fasting around Ramadan for Muslims; and how the dietary laws of Judaism are designed to create an awareness of living in the time and space of the Torah

• Explores ideas from the fields of literature, politics, and philosophy, as well as theology

• Takes seriously the idea that food matters, and that the many aspects of eating – table fellowship, culinary traditions, the aesthetic, ethical and political dimensions of food – are important and complex, and throw light on both religion and our relationship to food

“This is a book to be savoured like a beautiful meal. Its understanding of the Eucharist springs from both a profound study of the Scriptures and the traditions of the Church, and also a sensuous delight in that most intimate and sustaining of human activities, cooking and eating. This nourishing theological work also challenges us to build a society in which all of humanity shares at the common table of God.” —Timothy Radcliffe, OP, Blackfriars-Oxford University

Read the first chapter online here.