From Symposium to Eucharist: The Banquet in the Early Christian World

by Dennis E. Smith

Table fellowship in the ancient Mediterranean was more than food consumption. From Plato on down, banquets held an important place in creating community, sharing values, and connecting with the divine.

Genres: Religion

424 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2003

Reviews

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

An A+ read if you're a nerd writing a thesis about sacred meals! Otherwise, you might not want to read this one!!

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just what I needed for a Bible study but maybe not a summer on the beach read

[Robert D. Cornwall · Rating 4 out of 5]

It has always seemed like a common sense idea that eucharistic practices of the Christian faith developed from Passover Traditions (I make that claim in my own little book on the eucharist -- Eucharist: Encounters with Jesus at the Table. The Gospels seem to suggest that the Last Supper was a Passover celebration. Dennis Smith challenges that received tradition suggesting that the eucharist/communion/Lord's Supper is reflective of common Greco-Roman Banquet/Symposium practices. He makes an excellent case for this, going into detail as to what these practices looked like and how the biblical texts reflect them.

What most intrigues me is the question of social boundaries and social bonding -- both of which the Christian practices early on seemed to challenge. The Table remains a place of social bonding, but the boundaries are challenged.

It's a scholarly book, but still quite readable.