On March 8th, the Graduate Theological Union Library in Berkeley, CA, hosted a one-day conference titled “Food as Sacred Text,” funded by an Atla Library Impact Grant.
For the past 31 years, the Graduate Theological Union Library has held an annual lecture series, “Reading of the Sacred Texts,” highlighting the different religions of the GTU. This series began with Professor John Pairman Brown’s 1993 presentation, titled “What Makes a Text Sacred?” and gave rise to a series of explorations of sacred texts. Each year since then, the GTU Library has invited a speaker with a particular connection to a “sacred text,” written or oral, traditional or new, within a canon of scriptures or drawn from outside a religious tradition, to present the Sacred Texts lecture. Our definition of “text” is fluid and, in the past, has included dance, opera, works of literature, oral traditions, tarot cards, poetry, art, song, calligraphy, presidential addresses, and the Constitution. These lectures focus on a single viewpoint with the religious tradition changing yearly. When we decided to focus on the topic of food, we quickly realized its vital presence in every tradition, private and communal practice, and woven into all cultures and identities so that we would not be able to select only one featured speaker.
This year, we hosted an all-day hybrid conference for the first and only time. Food as Sacred Text: Interreligious Rituals, Practices, & Cultures brought speakers from many perspectives into a single conversation, transforming multi-religious scholarship into interreligious dialogue. That is what we do here at the GTU. As former GTU president Claude Welch once said: “The GTU is nothing less than an ingenious device for arranging creative collisions.” We hope our participants experienced a little collision.
The library welcomed indigenous keynote speakers Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino, founders of Cafe Ohlone in Berkeley, the only Ohlone restaurant in the world. They began in 2018 in the back of University Press Books, and today have expanded into the Hearst Museum of Anthropology at UC-Berkeley. Their work is multifaceted and promotes language restoration, traditional arts, Ohlone culinary traditions, and climate justice through land rehabilitation. Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino, spoke of “holše mak-nuunu — Our Culture is Beautiful: Cafe Ohlone and the ‘oṭṭoy Initiative.” Requesting not to be recorded, the presentation wove food as one linking aspect of the Indigenous culture throughout generations.
Medina remarked that their language had no word for famine, only for there being more than enough for everyone. He spoke of his elders’ traditions, how the land and the bay always provided, and how they continue to live in the East Bay near Berkeley. He concluded by asking that the Ohlone, considered “extinct for all practical purposes” by 20th-century anthropologists and government agencies, always be spoken of in the present tense, as they are a living culture. They brought hot tea that had been gathered from their lands to share. One attendee later remarked that listening to Medina speak about the Ohlone people was like a sunrise, allowing us to see what was right before us.
Other speakers followed, each highlighting an aspect of food in their respective traditions:
- Oryoki: Ritualized Zen Eating Practices, Rev. Gesshin Greenwood, Communications & Admissions Director, Institute of Buddhist Studies
- Catholic Saints: Their Feasts and Foods, Dr. Chris Renz, OP, Academic Dean & Professor of Liturgical Studies, Dominican School of Philosophy & Theology
- Food Insecurity, Islamic Charity, and Giving for the Sake of God, Dr. Munir Jiwa, Founder and Former Director, Center for Islamic Studies, GTU
- Shi’i Inscribed Votive Food, Zeinab Vessal, Ph.D. Student, GTU
- Gathering Ingredients: Mormon Women and the Recipe for Backstage Rites, Kristine Wright, Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Religion, Princeton University
- Dining with the Dead: Meals as Mortuary Ritual in Judean Bench Tombs, Dr. Aaron Brody, Professor of Bible & Archaeology, Director of the Badè Museum, Pacific School of Religion
- Food and Fulfillment in Jewish Practice, Dr. Deena Aranoff, Director of the Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies & Senior Lecturer in Medieval Jewish Studies, GTU
One thing that stood out to me was the recurring theme of food being a significant thread connecting the generations of people, from Chris Renz speaking about his grandmother’s kitchen to Kristine Wright telling of the passing of a church member who baked the Sacramental Bread and how the tradition continues. Even after death, as Aaron Brody shared, ancient Judean people dined in the tombs with their loved ones. Rituals are passed down, and food is often the conduit that carries the tradition. These eight talks have been recorded and are available on our website.
And it could not be a conference on food without acknowledging the delicious Turkish lunch from Simurgh Bakery, made by GTU alum Hatice Yildiz. A Library Impact Grant from Atla funded the catering costs for the in-person attendees.
If you were not one of the 109 attendees, or if you want to see the talks again, we have this year’s conference and previous Sacred Text lectures on GTU’s website.
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