Whitebread Protestants : Food and Religion in American Culture

Rating:
Summary: Fun, thoughtful, unexpected
Review: That bread and wine are at the center of most Christian religious services is not news. But taking that seriously -- the centrality of food in worship, in the communal experience of faith -- gives Sack's book a window into the what we want from our churches and how our churches our drawn into the rest of our lives.

Five chapters, each in a somewhat different voice, look at the way food functions in mainline Protestant churches. It reaches back into the 1800's, at the fierce battles by those who argued that Jesus must have been a temperance crusader who never would let alcohol cross His lips. It moves through the details of Atlanta's current church-based efforts to feed the hungry, and the tension between working to feed the hungry and working to end hunger. It stops by the suburbs of Chicago, to churches where professional cafeterias have replaced potluck dinners. Along the way, you get great anecdotes, solid writing, and a lot to think about.

The simple strength of the narrative alone makes the book worth buying. But the insights you pick up along the way are what will fuel your dinner conversations for some time afterwards.