Meals in the Early Christian World

Ellen Bradshaw Aitken, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, CanadaRichard S. Ascough, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, CanadaCarly Daniel Hughes, Concordia University, Montreal, CanadaNancy A. Evans, Wheaton College, Norton, Massachusetts, USAJennifer A. Glancy, Le Moyne College, Syracuse, New York, USAMatthias Klinghardt, Institut für evangelische Theologie, Technische Universität, Dresden, GermanyLillian I. Larsen, University of Redlands, USASusan Marks, New College of Florida, USACarolyn Osiek, rscj, Brite Divinity School, Fort Worth, Texas, USAJordan D. Rosenblum is Belzer, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USADennis E. Smith, Phillips Theological Seminary, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USAAngela Standhartinger, Philipps-Universitaet, Marburg, Germany Hal E. Taussig, Union Theological Seminary in New York, USA

"In the beginning was the meal - the most basic and pervasive of social formations in the ancient world. These studies take us into this intimate world to discover its customs, its culture, and its power to create community among companions. A critical contribution to the study of antiquity and the social world of early Christianity." - Stephen J. Patterson, Atkinson Professor of Religious Studies, Willamette University "Meals in the Early Christian World is a splendid collection that engages the essential issues for understanding banqueting practices in the ancient world: the structure and social functions of the meal; materiality and the physical aspects of dining; the ideals of social 'equality' and the realities of hierarchical arrangement and servitude; and the semiotics of 'reclining'. Resisting the temptation to fragment dining practices into 'Jewish,' 'Greek' and 'Roman' meals, this volume makes a compelling case for seeing dining practices as a common and unifying feature of ancient Mediterranean culture." - John S. Kloppenborg, Professor and Chair, Department for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto "Dennis E. Smith and Hal Taussig, long known for groundbreaking work on the study of meals in the ancient world and early Christianity, provide in this collection of essays another fine contribution that will move the study of the Greco-Roman banquets into the future. By studying the typology, the archaeology, the participants, and the culture of these banquets, Meals in the Early Christian World moves forward the scholarship of the social settings of the banquets in dialogue with the pioneering works of Smith and Klinghardt, further broadening the shift their studies have championed." - Reimund Bieringer, Professor of New Testament Exegesis, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium

• Table of Contents List of Contributors Abbreviations Introduction; Hal E. Taussig PART I: THE TYPOLOGY OF THE GRECO-ROMAN BANQUET 1. A Typology of the Community Meal; Matthias Klinghardt 2. The Greco-Roman Banquet as a Social Institution; Dennis E. Smith PART II: THE ARCHEOLOGY OF THE BANQUET 3. What Kinds of Meals Did Julia Felix Have? A Case Study of the Archaeology of the Banquet; Carolyn Osiek PART III: WHO WAS AT THE GRECO-ROMAN BANQUETS? 4. Social and Political Characteristics of Greco-Roman Association Meals; Richard S. Ascough  5. Banqueting Values in the Associations: Rhetoric and Reality; by Philip A. Harland  6. Women in Early Christian Meal Gatherings: Discourse and Reality; Angela Standhartinger  7. Remembering and Remembered Women in Greco-Roman Meals; Ellen Bradshaw Aitken 8. Present and Absent: Women at Greco-Roman Wedding Meals; Susan Marks 9. Evidence for Slaves at the Table in the Ancient Mediterranean: From Traditional Rural Festivals to Urban Associations; Nancy A. Evans 10. The Sex Trade and Slavery at Meals; Carly Daniel-Hughes 11. The Saturnalia in Greco-Roman Culture; Angela Standhartinger  12. Early Christian Meals and Slavery; Lillian I. Larsen  13. Slaves at Greco-Roman Banquets: A Response; Jennifer A. Glancy PART IV: THE CULTURE OF RECLINING: CORPOREALITY, SEXUALITY, INTIMACY 14. Bodies in Motion, Bodies at Rest: Status, Corporeality, and the Negotiation of Power at Ancient Meals; Carly Daniel-Hughes 15. Temptations of the Table: Christians Respond to Reclining Culture; Jennifer A. Glancy 16. A Valentinian Response to the Culture of Reclining; Ellen Bradshaw Aitken 17. Monastic Meals: Resisting a Reclining Culture?; Lillian I. Larsen  18. Inclined to Decline Reclining? Women, Corporeality, and Dining Posture in Early Rabbinic Literature; Jordan D. Rosenblum Bibliography of Works Cited Index of Ancient Sources