Bake & Pray: Liturgies and Recipes for Baking Bread as a Spiritual Practice
From God’s provision of manna in the wilderness to Jesus’ miraculous multiplication of loaves, bread functions throughout Scripture as a sign of God’s presence and provision. As a professional baker and practical theologian, I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on the connection between the dough that clung to my hands at work and the bread blessed and pressed into my palm at church, ultimately seeing that they both were tangible reminders that God was with me and that God cared.
The Bake & Pray™ method focuses on learning breadmaking in terms of liturgy rather than recipe, allowing the rhythms of rest and repetition to shape the baker as the baker shapes their bread. Whether a sourdough master or scared of yeast, Bake & Pray™ will open your eyes to God’s gift of bread in a new way—you’ll never bake or break a loaf the same way again.
Weaving baking science and technique together with theological reflections drawn from a wide range of Christian traditions, this book will:
teach you how to incorporate bread making into the rhythms of your busy life
reveal the ins-and-outs of bread baking while unlocking the spiritual parallels woven into each loaf
provide breadmaking liturgies and historical recipes to bake through a variety of liturgical holidays and seasons
show how to incorporate baking as a form of prayer in our lives.
As you follow the steps to bake bread―whether you are a lifelong baker or intimidated by the thought of yeast―you will learn something about the character of God and the life of faith. In Bake & Pray, you will get not only a practical understanding of how to bake bread, but also receive a deeper appreciation for the ways God can shape you in the process.
