Here is part two of the interview I have been doing with Abby K. (for part one see below): http://imprimis.wordpress.com/2012/04/26/an-interview-with-peter-bringe-author-2/
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Thursday, April 19, 2012
An Interview, Part 1
I have recently been doing a series of interviews with Abby Kautt on her blog concerning the Christian philosophy of food. You can read the first one here: http://imprimis.wordpress.com/2012/03/19/an-interview-with-peter-bringe-author/. The second one should be following soon.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Calvinist Beer
The following quote is from the book, Monro, His Expedition with the Worthy Scots Regiment Called Mac-Keys, written by Robert Monro in 1637 telling of his and his regiment's exploits in the 30 Years War (in Germany). Monro was a devout Presbyterian Christian as you can tell reading his many observations. I read the book last year and enjoyed it.
When I came across this following passage I had to smile:
When I came across this following passage I had to smile:
"This Regiment in nine years time, under his Majesty of Denmarke, and in Dutch-land, had ever good luck to get good quarters, where they did get much good wine, and great quantity of good beer, beginning first with Hamburg beer in Holsten, and after that in Denmarke they had plenty of Rustocke beer, and now at Barnoe, and thereafter they tasted the good Calvinists beer at Serbest...But my choice of all beers is Serbester beer, being the wholesomest for the body, and clearest from all filth or barme, as their Religion is best for the soul, and clearest from the dregs of superstition."Here's to wholesome and clear food, drink, and religion!
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
The Future of Food
What is the future of food?
Will food become more convenient and indulgent, and consumers become more dependent on expensive supplements to maintain their health? Will fruit, berry, and vegetable production be increasingly used for the sale of plant extracts to supplement foods, rather than being sold as less profitable and more perishable whole food? Will the cost of fuel make it difficult to afford foods that we have today from around the states and the world? Will people get more of their food from local farming families? Will people convert more of the property in their communities into vegetable, fruit and berry gardens? Will people know more about the beauty of minimally processed food and praise God?
Without a change from the current path of the nations, maybe the obesity crisis and cost of associated diseases will bring blame to producers, processors, marketers, and food services. The result could be mandates based on government guidelines, scientific experts and lobby groups. Pressures may increase on the largest retail stores and food companies to require suppliers to comply with standards around fat, sugar, and calories, and watch-dog organizations may put public pressure on companies that do not comply. Maybe these pressures will result in a better version of Pringles and fried chicken containing lower levels of hydrogenated frying oil, but will have no effect on people’s appreciation and consumption of red potato salad or chicken stew.
There is a niche demand for whole, mostly plant-based foods by those who make health and wellness a high priority. This market is served by natural food chains like Whole Foods which experience growth as the economy improves. It may be difficult for families to afford premium and conveniently prepared supplies and foods, especially as the prices increase and food becomes scarcer with increased demand for fuel and food from China. Perhaps some of the pressures on food prices will be curtailed by putting more of our own labor into producing food and trading/selling products with people that we know.
It could happen that individual families affect change in the nation by discipling their children in the knowledge of God. It could be that the character of children, families, churches, and communities are changed by God through faith in Christ and thus increasingly want and learn what is right and good by the power of the Holy Spirit. Maybe it will not be necessary to tax people to influence their consumption of junk food. Perhaps as people depend on God for their needs they will break addictions to the shallow sensuality of ‘pop food’. Perhaps they may steward the value of each food God has created and appreciate their combined roles, inspiring elegant presentation and health, and limiting the need for supplements and drugs. Families may act based on their faith in God and have courage to govern themselves according to God’s word. They may have hope because it is a blessing from God and because they can see how God has worked through history to provide. Maybe the Christian’s worldview will be attractive to others and even the ungodly see the benefits of a God-centered society. Maybe the whole nation will become prosperous, healthy, and free at the same time. Maybe the nation is blessed whose God is the Lord.
Will food become more convenient and indulgent, and consumers become more dependent on expensive supplements to maintain their health? Will fruit, berry, and vegetable production be increasingly used for the sale of plant extracts to supplement foods, rather than being sold as less profitable and more perishable whole food? Will the cost of fuel make it difficult to afford foods that we have today from around the states and the world? Will people get more of their food from local farming families? Will people convert more of the property in their communities into vegetable, fruit and berry gardens? Will people know more about the beauty of minimally processed food and praise God?
Without a change from the current path of the nations, maybe the obesity crisis and cost of associated diseases will bring blame to producers, processors, marketers, and food services. The result could be mandates based on government guidelines, scientific experts and lobby groups. Pressures may increase on the largest retail stores and food companies to require suppliers to comply with standards around fat, sugar, and calories, and watch-dog organizations may put public pressure on companies that do not comply. Maybe these pressures will result in a better version of Pringles and fried chicken containing lower levels of hydrogenated frying oil, but will have no effect on people’s appreciation and consumption of red potato salad or chicken stew.
There is a niche demand for whole, mostly plant-based foods by those who make health and wellness a high priority. This market is served by natural food chains like Whole Foods which experience growth as the economy improves. It may be difficult for families to afford premium and conveniently prepared supplies and foods, especially as the prices increase and food becomes scarcer with increased demand for fuel and food from China. Perhaps some of the pressures on food prices will be curtailed by putting more of our own labor into producing food and trading/selling products with people that we know.
It could happen that individual families affect change in the nation by discipling their children in the knowledge of God. It could be that the character of children, families, churches, and communities are changed by God through faith in Christ and thus increasingly want and learn what is right and good by the power of the Holy Spirit. Maybe it will not be necessary to tax people to influence their consumption of junk food. Perhaps as people depend on God for their needs they will break addictions to the shallow sensuality of ‘pop food’. Perhaps they may steward the value of each food God has created and appreciate their combined roles, inspiring elegant presentation and health, and limiting the need for supplements and drugs. Families may act based on their faith in God and have courage to govern themselves according to God’s word. They may have hope because it is a blessing from God and because they can see how God has worked through history to provide. Maybe the Christian’s worldview will be attractive to others and even the ungodly see the benefits of a God-centered society. Maybe the whole nation will become prosperous, healthy, and free at the same time. Maybe the nation is blessed whose God is the Lord.
-Neal
Friday, March 30, 2012
Food, Culture, and the Direction of Civilization
Food is usually not the most grand thing to our view. Except for the wreckage of Pop culture, food is domestic and personal. Even in Pop culture it is a firm part of life, outflowing from who people are. A great deal made be said of us by the food we decide to eat. A keen observation was made by theologian Robert L. Dabney in his essay, The Uses and Results of Church History (1854), concerning this very thing. Writing of history in general, he makes the following comment:
"Those things which are the most operative elements of social, national and religious welfare are just the things which historians have been least careful to record. The knowledge of them has, in many cases, perished away for ever from our search. In secular history, battles, sieges, coronations, conquests, treaties; and in ecclesiastical history, councils and their canons, controversies and anathemas, have been the favorite themes of the story. But the food which nations ate, the clothing they wore, their domestic life, the state of domestic discipline, their arts, agriculture and amusements, the method of their devotions, their superstitions, the hymns they sang, the preaching to which they listened, the books they most read, the color of the national and social passions, the pecularities of the national spirit; all these every-day and homely influences are the causes which potentially form the character and compose that mighty current of the age on which kings, battles, conquests and conquerors are but the floating bubbles which indicate its motion. But all this historians have usually left to die with the passing time, as if it was unworthy of the dignity of their drama."
While we ought not to make food our obsession--we must be changed by God's grace before our food can change meaningfully--we ought to realize that the day-to-day influence of our familial culture is a powerful tool directing our civilization.
Monday, March 19, 2012
The Cultural Puzzle
When dealing with food it it important to deal with it in its context of life. Here is a quote that describes this very well by Ken Myers in his book, All God's Children and Blue Suede Shoes (p. 34):
"We can't simplify things too quickly by isolating one of these cultural expressions and asking how Scripture applies to it in isolation from everything else, for then it's not part of that social experience that's called culture. We cannot, for example, evaluate the virtues and vices of fast food in our culture merely by looking at Biblical teaching about meals. We have to take into consideration the place of the automobile and highways in our culture, our view of time and convenience, the pressures on modern families (both theses relieved and those exacerbated by fast food), the opportunity for employment created by this new service industry, and the many other pieces of the cultural puzzle. We then have to ask, given all the of the other forces that shape modern culture, whether eliminating McDonald's from the equation would mean that the people would automatically eat more nutritious home-cooked meals with the family gathered around the table, or whether they would eat more frozen TV dinners on their own unsynchronized schedules."
While I don't agree with everything in Myers' book, he really hit it on the head at this point. The title of my book, The Christian Philosophy of Food, may seem an ambitious title, but we really need a more comprehensive view of the many cultural aspects of food before we can deal with the details of each aspect. May we use the wisdom of God in trying to adjust our whole life in accordance with His Word, recognizing the difficulties of the web of "the culture puzzle".
"We can't simplify things too quickly by isolating one of these cultural expressions and asking how Scripture applies to it in isolation from everything else, for then it's not part of that social experience that's called culture. We cannot, for example, evaluate the virtues and vices of fast food in our culture merely by looking at Biblical teaching about meals. We have to take into consideration the place of the automobile and highways in our culture, our view of time and convenience, the pressures on modern families (both theses relieved and those exacerbated by fast food), the opportunity for employment created by this new service industry, and the many other pieces of the cultural puzzle. We then have to ask, given all the of the other forces that shape modern culture, whether eliminating McDonald's from the equation would mean that the people would automatically eat more nutritious home-cooked meals with the family gathered around the table, or whether they would eat more frozen TV dinners on their own unsynchronized schedules."
While I don't agree with everything in Myers' book, he really hit it on the head at this point. The title of my book, The Christian Philosophy of Food, may seem an ambitious title, but we really need a more comprehensive view of the many cultural aspects of food before we can deal with the details of each aspect. May we use the wisdom of God in trying to adjust our whole life in accordance with His Word, recognizing the difficulties of the web of "the culture puzzle".
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
The Family Economics Conference 2012
Last weekend I was at the Family Economics Conference, hosted by Generations with Vision. I have been an intern with Generations with Vision for over a year, and I was there primarily to put on the conference. But the work I did allowed me to still listen to many of the talks and panel discussions, and I thought I would share a few things that I took away from the conference.
(And before you wonder what this conference has to do with the Christian philosophy of food, we should remember that our food is a product of work, and how we work with our food will influence what we eat. In addition, what and how we eat influences our daily life and work (and vice versa). So when thinking about food it is very important to step back and examine our work and life from a biblical perspective.)
1. The trains are coming Kevin Swanson opened up the conference with a picture of our current society, and it didn't look pretty. There are several 'trains' coming to collide, such as the declining American GDP, the retiring baby boomers with their increasingly immature children taking the reins of society, the increasing disfunctionality of the family and the growth of the state, the de-relativizing of the Bible and Christian Ethics and the growth and acceptance of immorality, the pride in humanistic science building bigger and more centralized systems prone to fail and fail big time, and the list goes on. Basically, our current system does not look like it can survive the way it is for another 20, 50, or 100 years. People are loosing hope and faith and are largely unmotivated to work with purpose.
2. We must trust God's Word for society While the world around us may be failing and falling, we have reason to build and thrive in the ashes. Christ is "head over all things to the church" (Eph. 1:22), and "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good" (Rom 8:28). For those who love God our current situation is for our good. And those who love God do so by keeping His commandments in faith (1 John 5:1-5). The solution to our current problems, whether they involve economics, politics, culture (e.g. food), etc… is to return to "the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them" (Is. 8:20 KJV).
3. Biblically, the family is basic to work and dominion This may be considered the main point of the conference. This was brought out in many ways. For example, in the Ten Commandments we can see that the 2nd (against graven idols) is muti-generational in scope, the 4th (concerning the Sabbath) implies that your son and daughter are working with you and should stop on the Sabbath, the 5th obviously establishes that foundational to blessing is the honor of father and mother in the family, and it is this that is extended in principle to honoring other authorities. In the 7th (against adultery) it protects the stability and unity of the family, and the 8th and 10th (against stealing and coveting) protects the strength of your neighbor's family economy. Other examples of this biblical connection between the family and work were the households of the patriarchs, Aquila and Pricilla, Adam and Eve, etc… When a family is unified in its work, then it can function much better as the covenantal and relational unit that God made it as. (And included in this point is that, in fact, the family is also basic to education, to culture, to church, to commonwealth, and to society in general.)
4. A host of practical suggestions This probably took up most of the conference, and is the hardest to summarize. The best way is to get the recording of the conference. Teaching family members to work with their different skills in unity is very important, but also takes much wisdom. Some things covered were marketing strategies (e.g. importance of personal communication skills), choosing the right business, how to handle money (and what money is), how to integrate the family into the household economy (whatever business it is, and whoever the children are; be creative), how to get started, etc… One thing I thought was a great point was to teach children to be producers, even before they are really are being profitable.
5. Sweet fellowship One of the best parts of the conference was the fellowship of other people and families on the same journey with a similar vision for rebuilding our society on a Christian foundation. I saw many dear friends that I had known for a while, some that I hadn't seen for two years, and I met new friends as well. It was one things to hear the vision for a biblical family economy, but to see real families that were doing it, and others that are going to attempt it in one way or another was very inspiring. The food at the conference (held at the Wheaton College facilities) was very good and added to the beautiful atmosphere of brothers dwelling in unity (Ps. 133).
To sum it up, here are the words of Doug Phillips on what we were there for:
"What we mean by family economy: 'The God-designed, culturally transcendent, generationally oriented, household-based social structure designed to honor the Genesis 1:28 command of fruitfulness and dominion, by which families maximize their cultural and economic influence and seek to prosper with the blessing of God and under his law.'"
(And before you wonder what this conference has to do with the Christian philosophy of food, we should remember that our food is a product of work, and how we work with our food will influence what we eat. In addition, what and how we eat influences our daily life and work (and vice versa). So when thinking about food it is very important to step back and examine our work and life from a biblical perspective.)
1. The trains are coming Kevin Swanson opened up the conference with a picture of our current society, and it didn't look pretty. There are several 'trains' coming to collide, such as the declining American GDP, the retiring baby boomers with their increasingly immature children taking the reins of society, the increasing disfunctionality of the family and the growth of the state, the de-relativizing of the Bible and Christian Ethics and the growth and acceptance of immorality, the pride in humanistic science building bigger and more centralized systems prone to fail and fail big time, and the list goes on. Basically, our current system does not look like it can survive the way it is for another 20, 50, or 100 years. People are loosing hope and faith and are largely unmotivated to work with purpose.
2. We must trust God's Word for society While the world around us may be failing and falling, we have reason to build and thrive in the ashes. Christ is "head over all things to the church" (Eph. 1:22), and "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good" (Rom 8:28). For those who love God our current situation is for our good. And those who love God do so by keeping His commandments in faith (1 John 5:1-5). The solution to our current problems, whether they involve economics, politics, culture (e.g. food), etc… is to return to "the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them" (Is. 8:20 KJV).
3. Biblically, the family is basic to work and dominion This may be considered the main point of the conference. This was brought out in many ways. For example, in the Ten Commandments we can see that the 2nd (against graven idols) is muti-generational in scope, the 4th (concerning the Sabbath) implies that your son and daughter are working with you and should stop on the Sabbath, the 5th obviously establishes that foundational to blessing is the honor of father and mother in the family, and it is this that is extended in principle to honoring other authorities. In the 7th (against adultery) it protects the stability and unity of the family, and the 8th and 10th (against stealing and coveting) protects the strength of your neighbor's family economy. Other examples of this biblical connection between the family and work were the households of the patriarchs, Aquila and Pricilla, Adam and Eve, etc… When a family is unified in its work, then it can function much better as the covenantal and relational unit that God made it as. (And included in this point is that, in fact, the family is also basic to education, to culture, to church, to commonwealth, and to society in general.)
4. A host of practical suggestions This probably took up most of the conference, and is the hardest to summarize. The best way is to get the recording of the conference. Teaching family members to work with their different skills in unity is very important, but also takes much wisdom. Some things covered were marketing strategies (e.g. importance of personal communication skills), choosing the right business, how to handle money (and what money is), how to integrate the family into the household economy (whatever business it is, and whoever the children are; be creative), how to get started, etc… One thing I thought was a great point was to teach children to be producers, even before they are really are being profitable.
5. Sweet fellowship One of the best parts of the conference was the fellowship of other people and families on the same journey with a similar vision for rebuilding our society on a Christian foundation. I saw many dear friends that I had known for a while, some that I hadn't seen for two years, and I met new friends as well. It was one things to hear the vision for a biblical family economy, but to see real families that were doing it, and others that are going to attempt it in one way or another was very inspiring. The food at the conference (held at the Wheaton College facilities) was very good and added to the beautiful atmosphere of brothers dwelling in unity (Ps. 133).
To sum it up, here are the words of Doug Phillips on what we were there for:
"What we mean by family economy: 'The God-designed, culturally transcendent, generationally oriented, household-based social structure designed to honor the Genesis 1:28 command of fruitfulness and dominion, by which families maximize their cultural and economic influence and seek to prosper with the blessing of God and under his law.'"
With God as our help and defender,
-Peter Bringe
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