Against Beer and Bacon Theology

What is Beer and Bacon Theology? Well it's certainly not a concise set of propositions, a coherent system, or thought of one man or specific group, it is instead based on a general inchoate mentality towards the use of base pleasures, specifically alcohol. The attitude I take issue with is one that I’ve personally encountered having been around very conscious Catholics and institutions for a few years now. The most concrete example I can think of is that of people who put a caricature of Chesterton and Belloc at the heart of their thinking; they seek to divinize the pleasures of food and especially drink, I term this view Beer and Bacon Theology, or, as a Catholic Answers article put it, Theology of the Bottle.

While I haven’t found anything these people say that is explicitly objectionable – their statements on the virtues of eating and drinking are always qualified by admonitions against drunkenness and excess – there is still something troubling to me about the way they approach alcohol, and the mentality that they are fostering amidst the Catholic culture. On the surface Beer and Bacon Theology seems to breed merely a pretentiousness surrounding drinking with its insistence on high quality and decorum, but deeper than that is something that seems to me truly disordered and corrosive to the culture.

The most direct analogous current of Catholic thought would probably be the Theology of the Body, specifically the form it takes in its popular presentation; just like how we got a sexed-up version of Catholicism, we now have a boozy version that presents knocking back a few Chimay Blues over a perfectly assembled charcuterie board as the apotheosis of spirituality. Thankfully – unlike Theology of the Body – this latter opinion does not have papal approbation, but neither does it have a coherent formulation, which makes it much harder to identify and critique; it’s the sort of attitude which makes booze an ever present fixture (or centerpiece) of Catholic men’s events, and inspires articles and opinions on “Catholic Drinking” which give the impression that the more deeply you appreciate the sensations of drink the more deeply you commune with God. Get real.

Really, I think it's much better to just be normal and admit you want to party and get drunk than to dress it up with theological justifications and cringy notions of "class," at least this would create a more honest social atmosphere, and therefore more opportunities for goodness. The less illusion the better. 

Why is there such an emphasis on sense-pleasure developing in the Catholic sphere? I’ve posed this question with slightly different wording to more enthusiastic preachers of Beer and Bacon Theology, and the reply I generally receive is that they believe that we have to counter the efforts and mentality of puritans (not Puritans) who look down on alcohol in all its forms. The question that arises here is, which puritans? It is immediately evident after spending any amount of time in Catholic groups and institutions with young men (although this isn’t entirely isolated to them) that their culture is stepped in liquor. I’ve only seen the oft cited “puritanism” that is so attacked in the form of youthful reticence or naïve resolve which tends to dissolve quickly after introduction to the enchantments of drink. In fact, I’ve known many young Catholics with alcohol problems and none who view liquor as an absolute evil. And again, for those with a problem, honesty is a far better option than Beer and Bacon Theology which acts as yet another layer of artificiality over people's souls.

Not much needs to be said about the many kinds of excess that the wider Western culture has embraced, so there too I fail to find a major example of puritanism influencing Catholics, so it seems plain to me that we indeed have the opposite problem. I always feel uncomfortable giving exhortations – especially as relating to the spiritual – but I can’t help but thinking that perhaps Catholics need less alcohol.

So again, why? At best Beer and Bacon Theology could be construed as an attempt to moderate the excesses of Catholic youth who have been formed by a corrupt culture and environment. At its worst it is a spiritual veneer over a significant problem that sucks the life out of soul and body. Unfortunately, I think that the truth is closer to the second option; as it seems to me that what Theology of the Bottle accomplishes is fostering the already present culture of alcoholism among young Catholics, and this is not to be underestimated, as it is very easy to get addicted to the liquor. 

I think another look at Theology of the Body could explain things here: it seems that there is a link between the sexual revolution and its consequences, and the new personalist view of man and sexuality put forward by Pope John Paul II and subsequently glamorized by apologists. Since the culture had become so obsessed with sex, Theology of the Body shows that Catholicism can be sexy too, albeit in a more sanitized and ordered way (I’m mainly drawing from this post by Arturo Vasquez). In this analogue, Beer and Bacon Theology is a guide to superior alcohol enjoyment to Catholics whose alternatives are the many forms of drugs and pleasure that the modern world has created. 

I am very skeptical of this approach, for I think what is healthier and more effective is not to show how we can have more and better alcohol, but to show that we don’t need it in order to have a fulfilling life.