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Whitebread Protestants: Food and Religion in American Culture
At the beginning of Whitebread Protestants, Daniel Sack writes "When I was young, church meant food. Decades later, it's hard to point to particular events, but there are lots of tastes, smells, and memories such as the taste of dry cookies and punch from coffee hour--or that strange orange drink from vacation Bible school." And so he begins this fascinating look at the role food has played in the daily life of the white Protestant community in the United States. He looks at coffee hours, potluck dinners, ladies' afternoon teas, soup kitchens, communion elements, and a variety of other things. A blend of popular culture, religious history and the growing field of food studies, the book will reveal both conflict and vitality in unexpected places in American religious life.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published November 11, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 5, 2024
A fascinating book Protestants and food. There are some real limitations to the study—what is examined and how much—but that may be for lack of sources? And some of what is here is really eye opening. I especially loved the chapter on church kitchens and was fascinated by the study of single-serving communion cups.
April 4, 2022
It's a good historical account of 20th century protestantism and its relationship to food. There is not an abundance of analysis or theology, but I think that wasn't the point of the book. Instructional.
March 4, 2020
Some interesting stuff about the history of food politics, but repetitive and dry and weirdly self-praising.
January 1, 2009
Whitebread Protestants: Food and Religion in American Culture by Daniel Sack is disappointing. I was prepared to be scholarly engaged by a professor who understands material culture and religion and/or to be entertained by stories of food in American religious life. The book did not deliver on either category. Instead Sack provided five chapters, each loosely connected to Protestantism and food and using various methods of interpretation. But in each food disappears behind the Protestants Sack investigates.
The first two chapters on nineteenth century communion debates and the church supper are attempts at history, but the conclusions Sack makes are tired. Communion debates were about 1) wine or no wine and 2) communal cup v. individual cups. Sack concludes that these debates were about the morality of drinking, the authority of Scripture and of ministers, the intrusion of scientific authority into communal life and the desire to keep the individual safe from dangerous "dirty" others. None of these conclusions are new or particularly insightful, but instead rehash other historian's writings about this time period.
The second chapter is flattened by Sack's grasping of the idea of the "social church" (a very useful distinction made by historian E. Brooks Holifield who sees a movement from the comprehensive/parish church, to a devotional church, to a social church during the 19th century. Sack ignores the devotional church in his discussions, but it would be interesting to reflect on the role of food in that kind of congregation, which remained a central model well into the twentieth century, especially in rural areas.) The chapter notes no change over time in the social church (church dinners sadly fall into the background) between the 1890s and the 1950s and Sack intersperses details from throughout the period without a thought to the possibility of change. He spends considerable time analyzing one Chicago church, but its early history as a church of German immigrants (though eventually becoming UCC) make it hardly seem appropriate as an example of his "whitebread" Protestants. It would have been nice to hear a history of the potluck or the casserole, or just to examine the role of food in congregational life (possibly through the church cookbook), but he did not do that.
The third and fourth chapters on emergency food and global hunger issues do not examine material culture but are institutional history. Sack focuses on Atlanta area providers of emergency food in chapter three, recounting their growth and procedural changes. It was interesting to note how their religious identities became more and more muted over time. The fourth chapter is largely an examination of the history of the Church World Service and CROP and increasing Protestant concern with world hunger (though it only begins with the Depression and World War II and not earlier Protestant responses to international famine).
The fifth chapter on moral food (individual food choices) describes and compares Victorian and modern hunger activists and their calls for alterations to American diets. I liked its emphasis on lifestyle changes among modern Protestants and would liked to have seen more of an interaction with the history of consumer society in the chapter.
Overall, Sack provides some good details and institutional history, but offers no new conclusions. The chapters hang together only superficially. Having read Margaret Visser's anthropological work on dinner, it is possible my expectations were too high. Sack concludes: "All these food experiences reflect the world of whitebread Protestants. It is a world that focuses on cleanliness rather than theological tradition. It is a world of well-ordered social lives. It is a world of Christian obligation and institutionalized charity. It is a world of incredible wealth - and guilt over that wealth. And it is a world of self-control and symbolic action in response to systematic injustice." Unfortunately he has done little to expand our understanding of these ideas. And his further concluding remarks point to more to what he left undone in this work. "Food plays important symbolic roles in the church. It reveals the theological and political convictions of American Protestants and it opens a window onto belief and practice. Church events are full of meaning, ripe for anthropological research." (222) I had hoped that this was what I was getting when I picked up this book, but my hope was misplaced.
The first two chapters on nineteenth century communion debates and the church supper are attempts at history, but the conclusions Sack makes are tired. Communion debates were about 1) wine or no wine and 2) communal cup v. individual cups. Sack concludes that these debates were about the morality of drinking, the authority of Scripture and of ministers, the intrusion of scientific authority into communal life and the desire to keep the individual safe from dangerous "dirty" others. None of these conclusions are new or particularly insightful, but instead rehash other historian's writings about this time period.
The second chapter is flattened by Sack's grasping of the idea of the "social church" (a very useful distinction made by historian E. Brooks Holifield who sees a movement from the comprehensive/parish church, to a devotional church, to a social church during the 19th century. Sack ignores the devotional church in his discussions, but it would be interesting to reflect on the role of food in that kind of congregation, which remained a central model well into the twentieth century, especially in rural areas.) The chapter notes no change over time in the social church (church dinners sadly fall into the background) between the 1890s and the 1950s and Sack intersperses details from throughout the period without a thought to the possibility of change. He spends considerable time analyzing one Chicago church, but its early history as a church of German immigrants (though eventually becoming UCC) make it hardly seem appropriate as an example of his "whitebread" Protestants. It would have been nice to hear a history of the potluck or the casserole, or just to examine the role of food in congregational life (possibly through the church cookbook), but he did not do that.
The third and fourth chapters on emergency food and global hunger issues do not examine material culture but are institutional history. Sack focuses on Atlanta area providers of emergency food in chapter three, recounting their growth and procedural changes. It was interesting to note how their religious identities became more and more muted over time. The fourth chapter is largely an examination of the history of the Church World Service and CROP and increasing Protestant concern with world hunger (though it only begins with the Depression and World War II and not earlier Protestant responses to international famine).
The fifth chapter on moral food (individual food choices) describes and compares Victorian and modern hunger activists and their calls for alterations to American diets. I liked its emphasis on lifestyle changes among modern Protestants and would liked to have seen more of an interaction with the history of consumer society in the chapter.
Overall, Sack provides some good details and institutional history, but offers no new conclusions. The chapters hang together only superficially. Having read Margaret Visser's anthropological work on dinner, it is possible my expectations were too high. Sack concludes: "All these food experiences reflect the world of whitebread Protestants. It is a world that focuses on cleanliness rather than theological tradition. It is a world of well-ordered social lives. It is a world of Christian obligation and institutionalized charity. It is a world of incredible wealth - and guilt over that wealth. And it is a world of self-control and symbolic action in response to systematic injustice." Unfortunately he has done little to expand our understanding of these ideas. And his further concluding remarks point to more to what he left undone in this work. "Food plays important symbolic roles in the church. It reveals the theological and political convictions of American Protestants and it opens a window onto belief and practice. Church events are full of meaning, ripe for anthropological research." (222) I had hoped that this was what I was getting when I picked up this book, but my hope was misplaced.
February 1, 2012
A fascinating look at American Protestants' relationship to food: from the Temperance movement, changing ways of communion, concern for hunger following WWII, and the generally failed "lifestyle movements", it's a great read for anyone interested in mainline protestants' changing and strong connection to food and food issues.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews