Download or read book In the Beginning was the Meal written by Hal Taussig and published by Augsburg Fortress. This book was released on 2009 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Taussig, a founding member of the SBL Seminar on Meals in the Greco-Roman World, brings a wealth of scholarship to bear on the question of Christian origins. He shows that in the Augustan age, common meals became the sites of dramatic experimentation and innovation regarding social roles and relationships, challenging expectations regarding gender, class, and status. Rich comparative material and rigorous ritual analysis reveals that it was in just such a swirl of experimentation that the early Christian assemblies, with their love feasts and supper of the Lord, were born.