Meals in the Early Christian World: Social Formation, Experimentation, and Conflict at the Table

Front Matter....Pages i-xi
Introduction....Pages 1-5
Front Matter....Pages 7-7
A Typology of the Communal Meal....Pages 9-22
The Greco-Roman Banquet as a Social Institution....Pages 23-33
Front Matter....Pages 35-35
What Kinds of Meals Did Julia Felix Have?....Pages 37-56
Front Matter....Pages 57-57
Social and Political Characteristics of Greco-Roman Association Meals....Pages 59-72
Banqueting Values in the Associations: Rhetoric and Reality....Pages 73-85
Women in Early Christian Meal Gatherings: Discourse and Reality....Pages 87-108
Remembering and Remembered Women in Greco-Roman Meals....Pages 109-122
Present and Absent: Women at Greco-Roman Wedding Meals....Pages 123-148
Evidence for Slaves at the Table in the Ancient Mediterranean: From Traditional Rural Festivals to Urban Associations....Pages 149-164
The Sex Trade and Slavery at Meals....Pages 165-178
The Saturnalia in Greco-Roman Culture....Pages 179-189
Early Christian Meals and Slavery....Pages 191-203
Slaves at Greco-Roman Banquets: A Response....Pages 205-211
Front Matter....Pages 213-213
Bodies in Motion, Bodies at Rest: Status, Corporeality, and the Negotiation of Power at Ancient Meals....Pages 215-227
Temptations of the Table: Christians Respond to Reclining Culture....Pages 229-238
A Valentinian Response to the Culture of Reclining....Pages 239-244
Monastic Meals: Resisting a Reclining Culture....Pages 245-260
Inclined to Decline Reclining? Women, Corporeality, and Dining Posture in Early Rabbinic Literature....Pages 261-274
Back Matter....Pages 275-315