Ascetic Eucharists: Food and Drink in Early Christian Ritual Meals

by A. McGowan, Andrew Brian McGowan

Overview

The early Eucharist has usually been seen as sacramental eating of token bread and wine in careful or even slavish imitation of Jesus and his earliest disciples. In fact, the evidence suggests great diversity in conduct, including the use of foods, in the first few hundred years. This study describes and discusses these practices fully for the first time, and provides important new insights into the liturgical and social history of early Christianity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198269724
Publisher:	Oxford University Press, USA
Publication date:	07/28/1999
Pages:	328
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.10(d)
Lexile:	1680L (what's this?)

Table of Contents

Abbreviations		xi
1. Liturgy, Meal, and Society		1	(32)
Food and Society		1	(9)
Meal and Eucharist in Early Christianity		10	(8)
Liturgy and History		18	(9)
Interpreting Diversity		27	(5)
Conclusion		32	(1)
2. Ordering Food in Graeco-Roman Antiquity		33	(56)
Introduction		33	(2)
Food and Drink		35	(10)
The Banquet		45	(15)
The Cuisine of Sacrifice		60	(7)
Asceticism		67	(20)
Conclusions		87	(2)
3. Food and Drink in Early Christian Ritual Meals		89	(54)
Introduction		89	(2)
Bread and Wine		91	(4)
Cheese		95	(12)
Milk and Honey		107	(8)
Oil		115	(3)
Salt		118	(7)
Fruits and Vegetables		125	(2)
Fish		127	(13)
Summary		140	(3)
4. Bread and Water in Early Asian and Syrian Christianity		143	(32)
Introduction		143	(1)
Jewish-Christian Eucharistic Meals		144	(7)
Justin Martyr		151	(4)
Tatian and Friends		155	(5)
Encratites, Hydroparastatai, and Apostolics		160	(2)
Valentinian Bread and Water: Theodotus		162	(2)
Marcion, Tertullian, and Montanism		164	(5)
Vienne and Lyons		169	(1)
Elkesaites and Manichees		170	(3)
Conclusions		173	(2)
5. Bread and Water in Radical Pseudepigrapha		175	(24)
Introduction		175	(1)
The Pseudo-Clementine Literature		176	(7)
The Apocryphal Acts		183	(12)
Conclusions		195	(4)
6. Orthodox Use of Bread and Water		199	(19)
Introduction		199	(1)
Pionius of Smyrna		199	(5)
Cyprian		204	(7)
Aquarians		211	(2)
Afterword: Later Ascetic Movements and the Bread-and-Water Tradition		213	(5)
7. Bread and Water and the New Testament		218	(33)
Introduction		218	(1)
Bread and Water in the New Testament		219	(20)
The New Testament in the Bread-and-Water Tradition		239	(10)
Conclusion: Many Tables		249	(2)
8. To Gather the Fragments		251	(28)
Introduction		251	(1)
Describing the Bread-and-Water Tradition		252	(4)
Interpreting the Bread-and-Water Tradition		256	(14)
Asceticism and the Cuisine of Sacrifice		270	(6)
Conclusion		276	(3)
Select Bibliography		279	(16)
Index Locorum		295	(12)
Subject Index		307