The Catholic Table: Finding Joy Where Food and Faith Meet

Every one of us has to eat. Some of us eat too much food. Or we eat too little. Sometimes we eat without gratitude, without charity, or without respect. But, as award-winning author Emily Stimpson Chapman explains in The Catholic Table, with a sacramental worldview, the supernatural gift of God’s grace can transform and heal us through the food we make, eat, and share.

In The Catholic Table: Finding Joy Where Food and Faith Meet, you’ll discover a theology of food through the personal experience of the author and the wisdom of Scripture, the Saints, and more. Stimpson Chapman’s insightful survey of America’s food landscape is informed by the understanding of food as a sign and sacrament. As she explains, “There is nothing ordinary about food. By God’s grace, the simplest bowl of soup and the humblest hunk of cheese have the power to become an occasion of grace, drawing friends and family together around a shared table to build a shared life.”

The Church’s teachings on grace, the Eucharist, the virtues, fasting, hospitality, and the body are integral to how we consume our daily bread and lead us to peace, joy, and community (“and,” the author writes, “some really good dinners”). As Emily Stimpson Chapman explores these topics in The Catholic Table, she provides a delightfully written and meaningful framework for understanding feasting, fasting, and all the eating in between.