Norman Wirzba, Ph.D., the Gilbert T. Rowe Distinguished Professor of Christian Theology at Duke Divinity School, has written the second edition of his groundbreaking 2011 book that provides a comprehensive theological framework for assessing the significance of eating.

The second edition of Food and Faith: A Theology of Eating was published by Cambridge University Press in November after first being published in 2011. In the book, Wirzba draws on diverse theological, philosophical, and anthropological insights while offering new ways to evaluate food production and consumption practices as they are being worked out in today's industrial food economy.

Unlike books that focus primarily on vegetarianism and hunger-related concerns, Wirzba’s book broadens the scope of consideration to include the sacramental character of eating, the deep significance of hospitality, the meaning of death and sacrifice, the Eucharist as the place of inspiration and orientation, the importance of saying grace, and the possibility of eating in heaven.

Throughout the book, Wirzba presents eating as a way of enacting fidelity between persons, between people and fellow creatures, and between people and Earth. In Food and Faith, he demonstrates that eating is of profound economic, moral, and spiritual significance.

Revised throughout, this second edition includes a new introduction and two chapters, as well as updated bibliography. The additions add significantly to the core idea of creaturely membership and hospitality through discussion of the microbiome revolution in science, and the daunting challenge of the Anthropocene. In addition, the book includes a foreword by renowned scholar Stanley Hauerwas, the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor Emeritus of Divinity and Law at Duke University.

A Senior Fellow at the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke and the Senior Associate Dean for Institutional and Faculty Advancement at Duke Divinity, Wirzba pursues research and teaching interests at the intersections of theology, philosophy, ecology, and agrarian and environmental studies. He is the author of numerous book including Way of Love: Recovering the Heart of Christianity, From Nature to Creation: A Christian Vision for Understanding and Loving Our World, and (with Fred Bahnson) Making Peace with the Land: God’s Call to Reconcile with Creation.

Read an article about Professor Norman Wirzba being awarded a distinguished professorship by Duke University in June.

See a faculty profile article about Professor Wirzba.