Ascetic Eucharists: Food and Drink in Early Christian Ritual Meals
Andrew McGowan
Abstract
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 its conduct, including the use of
foods, in the first few hundred years. Eucharistic meals involving cheese, milk,
salt, oil, and vegetables are attested, and some have argued that even fish was
used. The most significant exception to using bread and wine, however, was a
‘bread-and-water’ Christian meal, an ancient ascetic form of
the Eucharist. This tradition also involved rejection of ... More
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 its conduct, including the use of
foods, in the first few hundred years. Eucharistic meals involving cheese, milk,
salt, oil, and vegetables are attested, and some have argued that even fish was
used. The most significant exception to using bread and wine, however, was a
‘bread-and-water’ Christian meal, an ancient ascetic form of
the Eucharist. This tradition also involved rejection of meat from general diet, and
reflected the concern of dissident communities to avoid the cuisine —
meat and wine — characteristic of pagan sacrifice. 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.
Keywords:
early Eucharist,
bread,
wine,
Jesus,
diversity,
cheese,
milk,
salt,
vegetables,
pagan sacrifice
Bibliographic Information
Print publication date: 1999 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780198269724 |
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: September 2011 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198269724.001.0001 |