T&T Clark Handbook to Early Christian Meals in the Greco-Roman World
Book Description
This comprehensive handbook explores how shared meals shaped the earliest Christian communities and their spiritual identity within the complex religious landscape of the ancient Mediterranean world. Soham Al-Suadi and contributing scholars examine the profound ways that dining practices influenced Christian theology, community formation, and religious understanding during the faith's formative centuries.
The work investigates crucial questions that emerged around early Christian tables: How did gender roles manifest during religious meals? What tensions arose between monotheistic Christian beliefs and the polytheistic meal traditions of Greco-Roman society? How did concepts of sacrifice transform within Christian dining contexts? The authors analyze the power structures, social hierarchies, and practices of inclusion and exclusion that defined these sacred gatherings.
Drawing from diverse primary sources including Hellenistic writings, New Testament texts across multiple genres, medical documents, and ancient inscriptions, this handbook reveals how meal practices served as both mirrors and shapers of early Christian values. The systematic examination moves through literary, historical, theological, and philosophical dimensions of these ancient dining experiences.
For contemporary spiritual seekers, this scholarly exploration offers insights into how communal practices can embody and transmit sacred values. By understanding how the earliest Christians navigated questions of identity, belonging, and divine relationship through their shared meals, readers gain perspective on the enduring connection between spiritual community and the simple yet profound act of eating together.
Who Is This For?
📖 Reading Level: Long (> 400 pages) (~12 hours)
📄 Length: 416 pages
What You'll Discover
- ✓ Explore Dinners and dining
- ✓ Explore Christianity
- ✓ Explore Religious aspects
- ✓ Explore History
- ✓ Explore Rome, social life and customs
- ✓ Cultivate devotional practice
- ✓ Explore RELIGION / Christian Life / Devotional
- ✓ Explore Fasts and feasts
