By Bread Alone
A Baker's Reflections on Hunger, Longing, and the Goodness of God
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
“A satisfying offering that will prove good medicine for the hungry soul.”—Publishers Weekly
Bread is central to God’s story, and to your story too.
Our spiritual lives are deeply connected to bread—the bread we break with family and friends and the Bread that is Christ’s Body, given and broken for us. It’s easy to choose the cheapest, most convenient option, but the life of Jesus and the story of Scripture, as well as the substance of bread itself, shows us that there is more. In By Bread Alone, Kendall Vanderslice, a professional baker and practical theologian who spends her days elbow-deep in dough, reveals that there is no food more spiritually significant than bread—whether eating, baking, sharing, or breaking.
Kendall has struggled with hunger ever since she can remember—hunger for bread, yes, but also for community and for the ability to “taste and see” the goodness of God. She knows the tension of bread as blessing and bread as burden but has learned that bread also offers a unique opportunity to heal our relationship to the body of Christ and to our own bodies. In By Bread Alone, she weaves her own faith-filled journey together with original recipes and stories about the role of bread in church history, revealing a God who draws near to us and creatively provides for our daily needs.
When words fail, when we cry out in longing and loneliness, when God feels impossibly far away, By Bread Alone displays the tangible expression of God’s presence and provision for us in the form of bread. It’s the story of hunger and family, of friendship and unmet longing. It’s the story of a God who meets us in both sacred and mundane ways. In the mixing and kneading, in the waiting and partaking, may God also meet you.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Vanderslice (We Will Feast), founder of the Edible Theology Project, uses the metaphor of baking bread to reflect on life and faith. Bread is central to the author's life (she is a baker), and she also sees it as a tool to "heal our relationship to the body of Christ and to our own bodies." In this homespun narrative, the notion of "Wonder Bread" religion—"cheap, industrialized, lacking nourishment and flavor"—contrasts with healthy bread as a source of spiritual nourishment. As well, Vanderslice analyzes the symbolic value of bread in the Bible, particularly its role in the Eucharist, highlighting the way its ingredients of flour, water, salt, and yeast are transformed into a singular substance in the same way as life's challenges transform a human soul. Tracing key passages of her life—including obsessive calorie-counting during a childhood pursuit of ballet, landing her first baking job, and launching a short-lived bread business—Vanderslice paints a rich picture of hopes ignited and pursued, and makes a case that even amid hunger, loneliness, and a modern fear of carbs, bread can serve as an apt symbol to help Christians commune with God and appreciate life. Count it a satisfying offering that will prove good medicine for the hungry soul.
