At the table of the gods

One can no longer understand the history of food today, as it has long been done, solely in terms of environmental, demographic, and economic imperatives. No, necessity does not always dictate law. Values and beliefs always transcend it. We nourish our dreams and hopes as much as our bodies. In this book, we will discover the connections that link many foods to religions. Let us accept the interweaving of matter and spirit, of the beast and the angel that unite in our nature and allow us the delightful temptation to live to eat, whereas eating to live is an asceticism not accessible to all. How wise was the apostle of the Catholic Reformation of the sixteenth century, Saint Francis de Sales, when he wrote that one must care for the body so that the soul may delight in it! A member of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences and the president of the University Paris IV-Sorbonne from 2003 to 2008, Jean-Robert Pitte is the author of numerous works, including, at Fayard, "Terres de Castanide" (1986), "French Gastronomy" (1991), "Wine and the Divine" (2004), "Cultural Geography" (2006).