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Seminar 10:
Meal and Eucharist in
the Early Church

The connection between the Eucharist and meals is clear – but often ignored, beyond the obvious link with a Passover celebrated by Jesus before his death. Yet meals have meanings, as anthropologist Mary Dougles puts it, that are "implicit" – you can tell a lot about someone from the way they eat. What can we learn about the earliest Christian communities from the ways they ate together?

Considering early Christian meal gatherings as precisely that, we find a surprising diversity of practices and perspectives. The forms and foods of the ancient Eucharistic meals reflected not merely adherence to a command from Jesus (if at all), but complex interactions with pagan and Jewish customs, and struggles concerning gender, violence, sexuality, and politics.

In this seminar, the scholar of ancient meals and liturgy, Andrew McGowan, provides a "sampler" of issues concerning Eucharistic origins in recent scholarship.

 
Date Wednesday 28 July
Time 7.30 pm - 9.30 pm
Venue St Peter's Church, Eastern Hill
Cost $15 (concession: $12)
Conductor Rev'd Dr Andrew McGowan
Director and Joan F.W. Munro Lecturer, Trinity College Theological School


Authorized by the Vicar (vicar@stpeters.org.au)
and the Institute for Spiritual Studies (iss@stpeters.org.au)
Maintained by the Editor (editor@stpeters.org.au)
© 2003 The Institute for Spiritual Studies