Religion and Wine: A Cultural History of Wine Drinking in the United States

by Robert C. Fuller

Book Overview

Wine, more than any other food or beverage, is intimately associated with religious experience and celebratory rituals. Nowhere is this seen more clearly than in American cultural history. From the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock to the Francis­cans and Jesuits who pioneered California's Mission Trail, many American religious groups have required wine to perform their sacraments and enliven their evening meals. This book tells the story of how viniculture...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0870499114
• ISBN13: 9780870499111
• Release Date: March 1996
• Publisher: Univ Tennessee Press
• Length: 152 Pages
• Weight: 0.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Is Wine a culture or an adjunct to religion?

As a long term alcoholic, this reader has wrestled with whether he should take wine at his service. This small volumn provides the background for an intelligent individual answer to the question. It also gives insight to the question of cultural purity in the midst of others, and the rituals designed to preclude contamination by non-believers. It's subtitle, "A Cutural History of Wine Drinking in the United States." is its best recommendation. If one already has the answer, then this open non-polemical history is not for them. I particularly related to its description of wine tasting as a religous-secular ceremony. The recent decision to prohibit sales of wine via the Internet makes sense after "tasting" this easy read volume. A strong recommendation for religous anthropologists, recovering alcoholics, and the just plain curious. The only omission that I noted was no discussion of the use of non-preserved grape juice "mus" for ministers, rabbis, and priests who are alcoholics.