Starving for Salvation: The Spiritual Dimensions of Eating Problems Among American Girls and Women Book

In recent years, eating disorders among American girls and women have become a subject of national concern. Conventional explanations are generally framed in the language of psychology, feminism, sociology, or medicine. Although they differ in theory and approach, they are all linked by one common assumption--that the female preoccupation with food and weight is an essentially secular phenomenon.

In Starving for Salvation, Michelle Lelwica challenges traditional theories by introducing and exploring the spiritual nature of anorexia, bulimia, and related problems. Drawing on a range of sources that include interviews with sufferers of eating disorders, she offers an incisive analysis of American culture, arguing that our social values and patriarchal religious legacies produce feelings of pain and emptiness in women. She predicts that until these religious and cultural forces are contested, many women will turn to the only symbolic and ritual resources available to them--food and their bodies--in order to satiate their profound spiritual hunger.

Written with insight, clarity, and compassion, and suggesting many positive ways in which our society can nourish the creative and spiritual needs of girls and women, this unique book provides a vital new perspective on this pervasive problem.