Contents

About the Seminar

Seminar Papers and Articles Online

Members of the Seminar

Photo Descriptions

 

 

 

 

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About the Seminar

". . . it had been their custom to disperse and reassemble later to take food of an ordinary, harmless kind" (Pliny, Letters 10.96, describing the meetings of Christians in Bithynia, ca. 98 C.E.)

This ongoing seminar within the Society of Biblical Literature explores meals as a window into social and religious life in the Greco-Roman world and as a pivotal consideration in understanding early Christianity and Judaism.  Ancient groups of all kinds tended to center their gatherings on communal meals.  In doing so, they all utilized and adapted the same basic meal form, namely that of the Greco-Roman banquet.  This seminar explores how the banquet form and ideology contributed to social formation and identity in the Greco-Roman world. 

Scholarship has yet to fully acknowledge the global reach of a single banquet form.  This research promises to revolutionize the study of group formation in the Greco-Roman world, most notably the formation of early Christian groups and their meal practices and liturgy, including the eucharist. 

Foundational to the work of the seminar are the seminal studies by two of its members:  Matthias Klinghardt, Gemeinschaftsmahl und Mahlgemeinschaft: Soziologie und Liturgie frühchristlicher Mahlfeiern (Texte und Arbeiten zum neutestamentlichen Zeitalter 13.  Tübingen: A. Francke Verlag, 1996); and, Dennis E. Smith, From Symposium to Eucharist: The Banquet in the Early Christian World (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003).

 

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Seminar Papers Online and Seminar History (since 2002)

 

2009

Session 1: Book Review - Hal Taussig's In the Beginning Was the Meal: Social Experimentation and Early Christian Identity

(Meeting 22-130: 11/22/2009 9:00-11:30AM, room Grand Chenier - SH)

Susan Marks, Presiding

Dennis E. Smith, Panelist

Angela Standhartinger, Panelist, Response now available

Matthias Klinghardt, Panelist

Hal Taussig, Respondent, Response now available

 

Session 2: The Culture of Reclining: Corporeality, Sexuality, Intimacy

(Meeting 22-333: 11/22/2009 4-6:30 PM, room Balcony N - MR)

Philip A. Harland, Presiding

David L. Balch, "Artistic Representations of Corporeality, Sexuality, and Intimacy at Meals." Photos and photo descriptions now available in pdf.

Carly Daniel-Hughes, "Bodies at Rest, Bodies in Motion: Status, Corporeality, and Negotiations of Power at Ancient Meals"

Jennifer A. Glancy, "Notes on Early Christian Responses to Corporeality, Sexuality, and Intimacy in Dining Culture"

Ellen B. Aitken, "A Valentinian Response to the Culture of Reclining"

Lillian I Larsen, "Monastic Meals: Countering a Reclining Culture?"

Jordan D. Rosenblum, "Inclined to Decline Reclining?: Women, Corporeality, and Dining Posture in Early Rabbinic Literature"

 

2008

Session 1: Slavery and Household Meals

(Meeting: S22-123, 11/22/2008, 4:00 PM to 6:30 PM, Republic A - SH)

Janet Walton, Presiding

Carolyn Osiek, "Slavery and Household Meals"

Nancy A. Evans, "Did Slaves Ever Recline at Meals?"

Carly Daniel-Hughes, "The Sex-Trade and Slavery at Meals"

Angela Standhartinger, "The Saturnalia in Greco-Roman Culture"

Lillian I. Larsen, "Early Christian Meals and Slavery"

Response: Jennifer Glancy

Session 2: Rabbinic Meals and Methodology

(Meeting: S23-80, 11/23/2008, 1:00 PM to 3:30 PM, Fairfax A - SH)

Dennis Smith, Presiding

Susan Marks, "Rabbinic Grace after Meals and Social Formation"

Jonathan Brumberg-Kraus, "Performing Myth, Performing Midrash at Rabbinic Meals"

 

2007

Session 1: Meals and Social Formation

(Meeting: 11/17/2007, 1:00 PM to 3:30 PM, Room: Betsy C - GH)

Jae Won Lee, "Politics of Meals and Community in Solidarity: Paul’s politics of difference in Rom 14:1-15:13"

Hal Taussig, "Greco-Roman Meals and Performance of Identity: A Ritual Analysis"

Responses: Dennis Smith, Matthias Klinghardt

Session 2: Rethinking Eucharistic Origins: The Work of Andrew McGowan

(Meeting: 11/18/2007, 1:00 PM to 3:30 PM, Room: Salon 1 - MM)

Andrew B. McGowan, "Rethinking Eucharistic Origins: Seven Theses on Eucharistic Practice"

Responses: Dennis Smith; Angela Standhartinger

Discussion of works by Andrew B. McGowan on early Christian and Greco-Roman meals, including:

GROUP A (primary)

  • "Rethinking Agape and Eucharist in Early North African Christianity," Studia Liturgica 34 (2004), 165-176.

  • “‘Is There a Liturgical Text in this Gospel?’: The Institution Narratives and Their Early Interpretive Communities,” Journal of Biblical Literature 118 (1999), 77-89.

  • Ascetic Eucharists: Food and Drink in early Christian Ritual Meals (Oxford: Clarendon, 1999), 251-278 (ch. 7).

  • “Food, Ritual, and Power,” in  A People’s History of Christianity, Vol. 2: Late Antique Christianity (ed. Virginia Burrus; Minneapolis Fortress, 2005), 145-64.

GROUP B (secondary)

  • “Naming the Feast: The Agape and the Diversity of Early Christian Ritual Meals,” Studia Patristica 30 (ed. E. Livingstone; Leuven: Peeters, 1997), 314-18.

  • “The Inordinate Cup: Issues of Order in Early Eucharistic Drinking,” Studia Patristica 35 (2001), 283-91.

  • “‘First Regarding the Cup’: Papias and the Diversity of Early Eucharistic Practice,” Journal of Theological Studies n.s. 46 (1995), 569-73.

GROUP C (tertiary)

  • "Discipline and Diet: Feeding the Martyrs in Roman Carthage," Harvard Theological Review 96 (2003), 455-476.

  • “The Meals Of Jesus And The Meals Of The Church: Eucharistic Origins and Admission to Communion”, in Studia Liturgica Diversa: Essays In Honor Of Paul F. Bradshaw (ed. Maxwell E. Johnson and L. Edward Phillips; Portland, Oregon: Pastoral Press, 2003), 101-115.

  • Marcion's love of creation," Journal of Early Christian Studies 9 (2001), 295-311.

  • “Eating People: Accusations of Cannibalism against Christians in the Second Century,” Journal of Early Christian Studies 2 (1994), 413-42.

Responses:  Angela Standhartinger; Dennis E. Smith

 

2006

Session 1: Dining Space and the Culture of Greco-Roman Meals at Pompeii

 

David L. Balch, "Visual Representations in Pompeian Triclinia: What Do They Tell Us (if anything) about Practices and Values at Greco-Roman Meals?" (Abstract only)

Carolyn Osiek, “What Kinds of Meals Did Julia Felix Have in Pompeii?” 
(Click here for accompanying figures and photos)

Response:
Dennis Smith (available)

Session 2: Women at Greco-Roman Wedding and Funerary Meals

Kathleen E. Corley, “Women, Funerary Meals, and Lament, and the Origins of Early Christian Meals.”

Response: TBA 

Susan Marks, “Present and Absent: Women at Greco-Roman Wedding Meals.”

Response:  TBA

 

2005

Session 1: Meals in Greco-Roman Associations 

Richard S. Ascough, “Forms of Commensality in Greco-Roman Associations.”

Response:  Matthias Klinghardt

 Philip A. Harland, “Culturally Transgressive Banquets in Greco-Roman Associations: Imagination and Reality.”

Response: Dennis E. Smith

 

Session 2: Women at Greco-Roman Meals

Ellen B. Aitken, “Remembering and Remembered Women in Greco-Roman Meals.”

Response:  Susan Marks 

Angela Standhartinger, “Women in Early Christian Meal Gatherings: Discourse and Reality.”

Response:  Hal Taussig 

 

2004

Deciphering an Ancient Meal: The Therapeutae as a Test Case (Consultation session) 

Ellen B. Aitken, “Singing at Meals Among the Therapeutae.”(abstract)

Willi Braun, “Philo, Feasts, and Philosophy: The Therapeutae for Example.” (abstract)

Matthias Klinghardt, “The Therapeutae’s Dance.” (abstract)

Expanded article: Matthias Klinghardt, “Tanz und Offenbarung: Praxis und Theologie des gottesdienstlichen Tanzes im frühen Christentum,” Spes Christiana 15/16 (2004/05), 11-34 (reproduced here with permission from the journal).

Andrew McGowan, “The Food of the Therapeutae: A Thick Description.” (abstract)

 Hal Taussig, “Ritual Perfection and/or Literary Idealization in Philo’s On the Contemplative Life and Other Greco-Roman Symposia.” (abstract)

Additional materials on the Therapeutae by members of the seminar:

Jonathan Brumberg-Kraus, “Contrasting Banquets: A Literary Commonplace in Philo's On the Contemplative Life and Other Greco-Roman Symposia.”

 

2003

Defining a Typology for the Study of Meals in the Greco-Roman World (Consultation)

Dennis E. Smith, “The Greco-Roman Banquet as a Social Institution.”

Matthias Klinghardt, “The Typology of the Community Meal.”

Responses:
Ellen B. Aitken (available)
Willi Braun (available)
Jonathan Brumberg-Kraus
Andrew B. McGowan

 2002

Meals in the Greco-Roman World: Defining a Research Field (Consultation)

 

Dennis E. Smith, “Meals and Christian Origins.”

Andrew B. McGowan, “Meals and Eucharistic Origins.”

Jonathan Brumberg-Kraus, “Meals and Jewish Studies.”

Kathleen E. Corley, “Women and Meals.”

Hal Taussig, “Meals and Ritual Studies.”

L. Michael White, “Meals and Archeology.”

 

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Members of the Seminar (as of May 2008)

Steering Committee
Ellen Aitken (McGill University, Montreal)
Willi Braun (University of Alberta)
Jonathan Brumberg-Kraus (Wheaton College)
Matthias Klinghardt (Technische Universitaet, Dresden, Germany)
Andrew McGowan (Trinity College, University of Melbourne)
Dennis E. Smith (Phillips Theological Seminary)
Angela Standhartinger (University of Marburg, Germany)
Hal Taussig (Union Theological Seminary)

Other Members
Richard Ascough (Queens Theological College, Kingston, Ontario)
David Balch (Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary)
Kathleen Corley (University of Wisconsin)
Carly Daniel-Hughes (Concordia University, Montreal)
Arthur Dewey (Xavier University)
Nancy Evans (Wheaton College)
Jennifer Glancy (University of Richmond)
Philip Harland (York University, Toronto)
Lillian Larsen (University of Redlands)
Jae Won Lee (McCormick Theological Seminary)
Susan Marks (New College, Florida)
Carolyn Osiek (Brite Divinity School, TCU)
Janet Walton (Union Theological Seminary)
 


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Photo Descriptions

(In order of appearance.  All photos are by members of the seminar and are presented for educational, non-profit purposes.)
  • Funerary relief with banquet scene from Kyzikos, now in the British Museum (CIG 3684, Smith cat. no. 736; photo by Phil Harland)
  • Vase depicting meal scene,  from the museum at Rhodes (photo by Dennis Smith)
  • Mosaic of lobster and fish from Populonia,  near Rome (ca. 100 CE), now in the British Museum; photo by Phil)
  • Parthenon metope from Athens depicting the brawl of the Lapiths and Centaurs in connection with a marriage banquet, now in the British Museum (photo by Phil)
  • Dining room (triclinium) in the meeting-place of the builders' guild at Ostia (photo by Phil)
  • Mosaic of fruit basket and fish from Carthage (first to third century CE), now in the British Museum (photo by Phil)
  • Funerary monument depicting a husband and wife at a meal, now in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum (fourth century BCE; photo by Phil)
  • Meeting-place and dining hall of the "dancing cowherds" devoted to Dionysos at Pergamum (photo by Phil)
  • Relief from Parnormos (near Kyzikos) depicting members of an association reclining for a meal while being entertained, now in the British Museum (GIBM IV.2 1007; photo by Phil)

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Copyright notice:

Unless otherwise stated, the copyright of each paper appearing on this site is owned by the individual author of each paper.  No part of the papers may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the author or copyright owner.  The copyright of all photos is owned by the individual photographer as named in the photo descriptions, and photos are used here with permission.  Photos  may not be reproduced without permission from the copyright owner.