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The academy needs better theologies of cooking

The first step is to give voice to those whose work in the kitchen is shaped by necessity, not choice.

Last year, a doctoral student studying theology and food reached out to ask me for my thoughts. “There is so much writing on agrarian theology,” he said. “And a lot on the table, but almost nothing on the steps that happen in between—on cooking. Why do you think that is?”

It’s a question I first posed at a food and faith conference in 2015, while still a young graduate student in food studies, debating whether or not to take the step into the world of theology.

“The field is young,” I was told then. “One step at a time.”