Title: In the beginning was the meal : social experimentation & early Christian identity /
Authors: Taussig, Hal.
Publisher: Fortress Press,
Year: 2009
Subjects: Christianity Rituals; Church history; Dinners and dining Religious aspects Christianity; Dinners and dining Social aspects.; Lord's Supper History; Fasts and feasts.
Abstract: What were the origins of the Eucharist? Taussig, a founding member of the SBL Seminar on Meals in the Greco-Roman World, brings a wealth of scholarship to bear on the question of Christian origins. He shows that in the Augustan age, common meals became the sites of dramatic experimentation and innovation regarding social roles and relationships, challenging expectations regarding gender, class, and status. Rich comparative material and rigorous ritual analysis reveal that it was in just such a swirl of experimentation that the early Christian assemblies, with their "love feasts" and "supper of the Lord," were born. This cutting-edge monograph sheds new light on the social context of early Christian gatherings, illuminating the origins of the Eucharist and of Christianity itself. Taussig draws important implications for the practice of Christian community today.
Contents: Experiencing the meal -- New paradigms for the study of early Christian identities -- The hellenistic and early Christian social practice of festive meals -- Ritual analysis : a new method for the study of early Christian meals -- The expansive character of early Christian meals -- Meals of resistance to Roman imperial power -- Meals and early Christian social experimentation -- Identity performance as a new paradigm for the study of Christian beginnings -- Epilogue : reflections on twenty-first-century Christian worship.