Book Review: The Meal That Reconnects. Eucharistic Eating and the Global Food Crisis

Abstract

brief summary before throwing us in medias res would have assisted those readers who are unfamiliar with this play. Elements of Catholic Humanism are treated serially, without reference to an overall schema or structure; thus readers are unclear as to which elements are central and necessary and which aspects are accidental and peripheral. Themes in the play include ‘the role of comedy and tragedy, of good and evil, in art; the human desire for peace; human disagreement over fundamental concepts such as gender and the meaning of socially essential concepts as authority and marriage; and, perhaps more important of all, the relationship between divine and human nature’ (p. 19). Grace and free will; divine providence and human choice; love and laughter (both God’s and ours); God’s use of the foolish to teach wisdom (itself connected to selfknowledge); the church as a community of grace; the sacramental imagination—all these are illustrated in the dialogue of the play as explained by the author. The world of nature comes across as a better teacher than the world of the court that surrounds the monarch. A love of counterfeit (dissembling, disguise, imagination, and of play) surfaces often as a theme as does the role of words in building a healthy human society and the reign of peace (p. 89). Despite disguises—both those that effectively hide those who are speaking and those that are seen through—Maillet shows that Shakespeare teaches that ‘Real love ultimately leads towards revelation of identity and the realm of eternal being’ (p. 227). Rhetoric is used to inspire the play’s participants (and their audience) to virtuous action. The play revolves around a series of debates and exchanges, for example, between Jacques and Touchstone, Celia and Rosalind, Oliver and Orlando. There is no doubt that Shakespeare is truly artful in how he presents these exchanges and in his capacity to make words dance and sing in our minds and hearts. However, I did not find the constant reference to technical terms related to rhetoric (these are carefully explained in a sixpage glossary at the end of the book) helped me better understand the author’s argument, nor did I understand the significance he puts on the word ‘if’, though this may simply be due to a shortcoming in the reviewer. Apart from scholarly literature about the play, the author draws valuable insights from multiple different performances of the play (on stage and in films) in diverse locations and across many decades. Indeed, anyone involved in acting in or producing this play, as well as members of the audience, would benefit greatly from how Maillet unpacks the nuances, double meanings, and other subtleties deployed by Shakespeare.