Bread, Body, Spirit: Finding the Sacred in Food

by Alice Peck (Editor)

"How can we find what is sublime in our everyday encounters with food? Where is God in the supermarket? Can we see the holy in a strawberry?"
―from the Introduction Food plays a remarkable role in the daily routine of our lives. Whether we make time to eat with our families, or hit the drive-through on the way to doing something else, food and how we approach it has the extraordinary power to unite us with others and nurture our connection to the Divine. Provocative and insightful, the eclectic and beautiful pieces in this book will open your eyes to the awe-inspiring link between nourishment and nirvana. Drawing from many faith traditions and backgrounds―including Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, Native American and Sikh―the words in this volume paint a glorious picture of the sanctity waiting to be discovered in a thing so simple―and yet so divine―as food. Diana Abu-Jaber • Diane Ackerman • Rabi'a al-'Adawiyya • Barbara Tanner Angell • Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Sensei • The Rev. Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows • Michael Benedikt • Wendell Berry • Brother Lawrence • Edward Espe Brown • Martin Buber •Elias Canetti • Lynn L. Caruso • Joan Chittister, OSB • Laurie Colwin • Amanda Cook • Mary Beth Crain • Lama Surya Das • Ram Dass • Marc David • Zen Master Eihei Dogen • Meister Eckhart • Rick Fields • Betty Fussell • Kahlil Gibran • Bernard Glassman • Jane Goodall • Julia S. Kasdorf • Karyn D. Kedar • Haven Kimmel • Barbara Kingsolver • Jacqueline Kramer • Rabbi Irwin Kula • Julius Lester • Alison Luterman • Jalal ad-Din ar-Rumi • Sister Miriam Therese MacGillis • J. B. MacKinnon • Sara Miles • Helen Nearing • Bich Minh Nguyen • Vanessa L. Ochs • Mary Oliver • Mary Rose O’Reilley • Grace Paley • Lawrence Raab • Omid Safi • Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji • Rabbi Zalman M. Schachter-Shalomi • Lynne Meredith Schreiber • Rabbi Rami Shapiro • Guru Gobind Singh • Alisa Smith • Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki • Jessica Swift • Nancy Willard • Kristen Wolf

Genres: Food, Spirituality

224 pages, Hardcover

First published April 18, 2008

About the author

Drawn to finding the sacred in everyday things, Alice is the author of five books: Be More Tree; Mindful Beads; The Secret Language of Herbs; Bread, Body, Spirit; and Next to Godliness.

With Chris Grosso she cowrote Dead Set on Living—Making the Difficult but Beautiful Journey from F#*king Up to Waking Up. Her writing has appeared in Center for Humans & Nature, Spirituality & Health, Daily Good, and The Mountain Record. As an editor, she focuses on creativity, mind, and spirit, collaborating with spiritual teachers, psychotherapists, meditation instructors, and authors of all sorts.

She lives in Red Hook, Brooklyn with her family.

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a quick read: probably nothing in this book is even 10 pages long, and several entries are poems, graces, and other equally short works. While it was easy to race through, I think it would work well to go back again and get into the different works more deeply. Alice Peck has brought together a variety of writings on food, some from spiritual traditions including Judaism, Islam, and Christianity among others, and some not. She has organized them into different stages of producing, preparing, and sharing food, including topics on gardening and hunting, cooking and serving food, eating, fasting, disposing of remains, and giving thanks. I wouldn't have thought of some of her topics, and I'm glad she included them. I appreciated her introductions, although I wish they had been a little longer, to give me a little more to work with. And as far as recommending goes, I think this book will appeal more to people who already have an interest in spirituality maybe more than to people who focus on food and cooking.

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A compendium of short essays on food and its role in our life - I read it as I was researching Messiah's "Lenten Challenge" (to live as though you are on food stamps)... some valuable, others a bit trite. But provocative...

[Pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Been reading this book off and on for about 10 months now and finished reading the last 75 pages yesterday - interesting in the concept of the ritual of food preparation, seed to plant to food to waste to compost and starts over again. Interesting. UMW 2010 Education for Mission.

[Francine Apollo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book of essays on food. It can be read straight through, as I did, quickly or slowly over time.

This is great to read for individual enrichment or in a group spiritual program or retreat.

I really enjoyed this one! Recommended.

[Maria LaFontan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A purposeful book to remind one of the sacred importance of food. To stop taking for granted that which we need and consume. Make peace with the actuality of what it takes to fill your plate, And always respect.

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

A collection of essays, poems and prayers pertaining to food

[Naz Z]

Also read for class. Mostly just poetry and that was pretty #slay but some of them were too deep for me. Strawberry poem was a 10/10 tho

[Gretchen Geyer]

Fantastic! Should reference later about nourishment of body and spirit