TABLE OF CONTENTS: 1 Bodies of Evidence, Bodies of Knowledge: Contemporary Approaches, Historical Perspectives, New Directions. 2 The Good, the True, and teh Beautiful Female Body: Popular Icons of Womanhood and the Savation Myth of Female Slenderness. 3 Losing Their Way to Salvation: Papular Rituals of Womanhood and the Saving Promises of Culture Lite. 4 Universes of Meaning, Worlds of Pain: The Struggles of Anorexic and Bulimic Girls and Women. A Different Kind of Salvation: Cultivating Alternative Senses, Practices, and Visions. Notes. Selected Bibliography. Index.

We are living in a food and body image obsessed culture. We are encouraged to over-consume by the marketing and media that surround us and then berated by those same forces for doing so. At the same time, we are bombarded with images of unnaturally thin celebrities who go to enormous lengths to retain an unrealistic body image, either by extremes of dieting or through plastic surgery or both. The spiritual realm is not immune from these pressures, as can be seen in the flourishing of biblically and faith based weight loss programs that encourage women to lose weight physically and gain spiritually. Isherwood examines this environment in light of Christian tradition, which has often had a difficult relationship with sexuality and embodiment and which has promoted ideals of restraint and asceticism. She argues that part of the reason for our current obsession and bizarre treatment of issues around weight, size and looks is that secular society has unknowingly absorbed many of its negative attitudes towards the body from its Christian heritage. Isherwood argues powerfully that there are resources within Christianity that can free us from this thinking, and lead us towards a more holistic, incarnational view of what it is to be human. The Fat Jesus provides a fascinating study of the complex ways that food, women and religion interconnect, and proposes a theology of embrace and expansion emphasizing the fullness of our incarnation.

Isn’t your desire to overeat really spiritual hunger? “I can stop in the middle of a candy bar and have no desire to eat the second half if my stomach is not calling for it.” - Gwen Shamblin Do you eat and eat and never feel full? Rise above the magnetic pull of the refrigerator and turn to the bounty offered to thousands who have embraced a liberating weight-reduction program in churches across America. The Weigh Down Diet gives new hope to millions who have failed on conventional diets and guides readers to the richer satisfaction that comes not from food, but from faith. Gwen Shamblin’s The Weigh Down Diet is a groundbreaking approach to weight loss. People who have known no end to their hunger and who have no control over their late-night binges have learned through the Weigh Down Workshop that they can remove the irresistible desire for food. This is not a diet like others, because it is not food-focused. It contains chapters such as “It’s Not Genetics or Your Mother’s Fault,” “I Feel Hungry All the Time,” and “How to Eat Potato Chips and Chocolate.” So, as you can see, here is a very different approach to weight loss. Weigh Down gives back hope to dieters who will learn that God did not put chocolate or lasagna on Earth to torture us – but rather for our enjoyment!

An inspirational memoir chronicling the life of Joseph Kim, who not only survived and escaped the devastating famine in North Korea as an abandoned young boy, but made it to the United States and is now thriving in college here.

A.E. Dyson defines 'the fifth dimension' as our unending moment of consciousness - related Janus-wise to clock-time (the Second Law of Thermodynamics) and to Eternity. He studies in depth plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides; Christ's two great prayers and his proclamation of 'The Kingdom'; and mystical traditions - with Otto, T.S. Eliot, Vaughan, Blake, Wordsworth among the witnesses. He attacks all dogmatic churches, finding in help for the homeless, help for our planet, help for cultural minorities, the touchstone of religion. The reality of our eternal destiny and our earthly battle with evil is asserted, against the cultural degradation of this century. A challenge to youth especially, in the coming millennium.

In recent years, eating disorders among American girls and women have become a subject of national concern. Conventional explanations of eating problems are usually framed in the language of psychology, medicine, feminism, or sociology. Although they differ in theory and approach, these interpretations are linked by one common assumption--that female preoccupation with food and body is an essentially secular phenomenon. In Starving for Salvation, Michelle Lelwica challenges traditional theories by introducing and exploring the spiritual dimensions of anorexia, bulimia, and related problems. Drawing on a range of sources that include previously published interviews with sufferers of eating disorders, Lelwica claims that girls and women starve, binge, and purge their bodies as a means of coping with the pain and injustice of their daily lives. She provides an incisive analysis of contemporary American culture, arguing that our dominant social values and religious legacies produce feelings of emptiness and dissatisfaction in girls and women. Trapped in a society that ignores and denies their spiritual needs, girls and women construct a network of symbols, beliefs, and rituals around food and their bodies. Lelwica draws a parallel between the patriarchal legacy of Christianity, which associates women with sin and bodily cravings, and the cultural preference for a thin female body. According to Lelwica, these complimentary forces form a popular salvation myth that encourages girls and women to fixate on their bodies and engage in disordered eating patterns. While this myth provides a sense of meaning and purpose in the face of uncertainty and injustice, Lelwica demonstrates that such rigid and unhealthy devotion to the body only deepens the spiritual void that women long to fill. Although Lelwica presents many disturbing facts about the origins of eating disorders, she also suggests positive ways that our society can nourish the creative and spiritual needs of girls and women. The first step, however, is to acknowledge that female preoccupation with thinness and food signifies a strong desire for fulfillment. Until we recognize and contest the religious legacies and cultural values that perpetuate eating disorders, many women will continue to turn to the most accessible symbolic and ritual resources available to them--food and their bodies--in an attempt to satiate their profound spiritual hunger.