Table of Contents

Foreword by Norman Wirzba
Introduction: Conflicted Eating: Our Complicated Relationship with Food
1. Joyful Eating: God?s Intent for How We Relate to Food
2. Generous Eating: Serving the Needy, Loving Our Neighbors
3. Communal Eating: How Meals Bring Us Together
4. Restorative Eating: How Eating Together Heals
5. Sustainable Eating: Wise Choices in Stewarding the Land
6. Creative Eating: Food Preparation as Culture Making
7. Redemptive Eating: Putting Best Practices Together in the Real World
For Further Reading
Group Discussion Guide
Acknowledgments
Notes
Name and Subject Index
Recipe Index
Scripture Index
About the Author

About the Author

Rachel Stone is a regular writer for Christianity Today's Her.meneutics blog. She has also written for such publications as Christianity Today, Books Culture, Catapult, Relevant, Flourish and The Huffington Post. She enjoys gardening and meal-making with her husband and two sons. Norman Wirzba (Ph.D., Loyola University Chicago) is research professor of theology, ecology and rural life at Duke Divinity School. He holds memberships in the American Academy of Religion, the Society for Continental Philosophy and Theology and the International Association for Environmental Philosophy.
Wirzba is the author of Food and Faith (Cambridge), Living the Sabbath (Cambridge) and The Paradise of God (Oxford) as well as numerous reviews and articles, including "Agrarianism After Modernity: An Opening for Grace" in After Modernity? Secularity, Globalization, and the Re-Enchantment of the World (Baylor).

Reviews

"In this food-crazed society . . . Eat with Joy offers wisdom for the challenges of health and 'proper' eating. The book serves up a solid theology of food--of receiving it, enjoying it, and giving thanks for it. It offers the perfect blend of personal stories and research, Scripture and recipes."
*Caryn Rivadeneira, "The 2014 Christianity Today Book Awards," Christianity Today, January/February 2014*

"The moral imperative of food sustainability has turned many a well-intentioned dining companion into a locavore-vegan-forager scold obsessed with ritual purity at the expense of pleasure. From the Christian perspective, eating biblically should weigh not only the ethical and environmental implications of food production methods, but also such elements as generosity, friendship, gratitude and worship. Stone, a contributor to Christianity Today's Her.meneutics blog, presents a compelling case to tone down foodie righteousness with common sense and awe of the sacred. Confessing to personal struggles with eating disorders, Stone ends each chapter with lyrical prayers drawn from around the world. 'Better the occasional meal shared with friends at McDonald?s than organic salad in bitter isolation,' Stone admonishes the new dietary purists."
*John Murawski, Religion News Service, "The Year's 10 Most Intriguing Religion Books," December 22, 2013*

"In this engaging book, Rachel Marie Stone describes what she has explored on her journey of 'learning to eat like a Christian,' which has entailed movement towards the profoundly countercultural practice of joyful eating. . . . Given Stone's honest, disarming, and nonjudgmental spirit, the book will energize readers to take incremental steps away from the guilt, angst, and anxiety that so often characterize our relationships with food and to move redemptively toward joyful eating."
*Frances Taylor Gench, Interpretation, 67(4)*

"Eat With Joy is an expansive and generous exploration of theology, culture and all things food. . . . Eating becomes a richer act as one considers Stone's reflections; and if we are indeed what we eat, we become richer as well."
*Katherine Willis Pershey, Englewood Review of Books, Eastertide 2013*

"Stone's astute volume will nurture readers in a way that few books about food and faith can, helping them to move beyond both the paralysis of food-related knowledge and the didacticism that sometimes accompanies food-justice activism. Eat With Joy carries its readers toward the comforting, joyful truth that God is a 'loving parent, waiting to welcome us home with a hug and a bite of something to eat.'"
*Valerie Weaver-Zercher, The Christian Century, July 24, 2013*

"Rachel Marie Stone reminds us that God intends us to delight in food, and she invites us to do so again. Offering up both wisdom and recipes, Stone welcomes us to the table and shows us a way to eat with joy."
*Relevant Magazine, May/June 2013*

"Rachel Marie Stone's Eat With Joy: Redeeming God's Gift of Food takes one of the most fundamental aspects of human life and covers it with remarkable depth and breadth. . . . She offers a compelling vision of how we can spiritually and concretely partake of the heavenly banquet on earth."
*Conspire, Spring 2013*

"This is a bewildering world to eat in. Thankfully, Rachel Marie Stone has written Eat With Joy. . . . She draws on wisdom from all the voices of today--from Pollan and Kingsolver to Berry and Capon--and seasons it with a healthy dose of friendly common sense. . . . Eat With Joy is a welcome voice of sanity, speaking into the cacophony, helping readers to integrate and balance the many voices. Stone provides resources to help us eat redemptively, restoratively, communally, creatively, and sustainably. No more culinary stalemates or food comas: instead, we can eat with joy."
*Alissa Wilkinson, Books Culture, April 4, 2013*

"Rachel stone calls us to rediscover joyful eating by receiving food as God's good gift of provision and care for us. . . . Combining insightful reflections on food and faith with some tasty recipes, this will not be a book to miss!"
*C. Christopher Smith, Englewood Review of Books, Advent 2012*