Eating as a Christian act of hope
by Chris Doran
Interdisciplinary Environmental Review (IER), Vol. 16, No. 2/3/4, 2015

Abstract: This paper argues that eating can be understood as a profound act of Christian hope. Christian hope anticipates God's act of bringing creation to its glorious consummation and rests fundamentally on the faithfulness and power of God, uniquely demonstrated in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, by modelling behaviour that exhibits at least a pale reflection, as Sallie McFague calls it, of the kingdom of God. Hopelessness, according to Catholic philosopher Josef Pieper, exists around every corner in two forms: despair and presumption. This paper contends that eating and food systems can be representations of Christian hope over against the perniciousness of despair and presumption. For example, eating should remind us daily of our ontological dependence upon God and interdependence with the rest of creation. Furthermore, our intimate link to the soil, emphasised in the creation account of Genesis 2, should compel us to exhibit a certain sort of humility, which should have dramatic implications for how we view the role of technology in developing and participating in sustainable food systems. Moreover, this paper asserts that this Christian understanding of eating virtuously shapes the individual as well as the common good.

Online publication date: Wed, 05-Aug-2015

The full text of this article is only available to individual subscribers or to users at subscribing institutions.

 
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.

Pay per view:
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.

Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the Interdisciplinary Environmental Review (IER):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:

    Username:        Password:         

Forgotten your password?


Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.

If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com