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  • From Symposium to Eucharist: The Banquet in the Early Christian World
  • Andrea Lieber
Dennis E. Smith. From Symposium to Eucharist: The Banquet in the Early Christian World. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003. Pp. xi + 411.

From Symposium to Eucharist: The Banquet in the Early Christian World brings together an impressive array of source material on meal traditions in antiquity, focusing on the formal banquet as a social institution in the Greco-Roman world. The book, which began as the author's 1980 Harvard University dissertation, represents the culmination of more than twenty years of research. With chapters on Greco-Roman banquets, philosophical banquets, sacrificial banquets, club banquets, Jewish banquets, Pauline banquet traditions, and banquet scenes in Gospel narratives, Smith's text would be extremely useful for an introductory-level course on custom and culture in the ancient world. The original artistic renderings of banquet scenes featured in chapter one, based primarily on vase paintings and ancient literary sources, are especially useful pedagogical tools.

The central argument of the book is straightforward. Placing the Eucharist in its sociocultural context, which he defines as predominantly Greco-Roman in influence, Smith asserts that early Christians dined at table simply because it was Greco-Roman custom to do so. He positions his argument against earlier scholarship on the Eucharist which, he charges, focused too much on the variety of discrete meal forms that might have influenced the Eucharist or traced its origins to a particular type of communal meal (e.g., Jewish Passover seder, Greek symposium). Smith argues instead for a simplified model in which all variations of meals in antiquity are subsumed under the general category of the Greco-Roman banquet. His goal is to "provide a common model that can be utilized for the study of all data on formal meals from the Greco-Roman world" (p. 2) and to prove that "the banquet was a single social institution that pervaded the culture as a whole" (p. 12). This argument is clearly articulated in the opening chapter, with the help of detailed diagrams and figures.

In support of his thesis, Smith devotes his remaining chapters to a discussion of various types of ancient meals, highlighting what he sees as their common structure. The most comprehensive chapters are those on the Greco-Roman banquet and the Club banquet. These discussions reflect an impressive expertise with an astounding range of ancient sources. According to Smith's typology, the "banquet as social form" consists of [End Page 263] the following elements: the practice of reclining at table; the division of the meal into two courses (deipnon and symposium); the use of formal invitations; the positioning of couches according to rank; the use of servants; the practice of foot washing and anointment; the designation of a symposiarch to lead the banquet; and the central role of entertainment at the meal. Smith then illustrates the ways in which each of the meals he studies conforms to this basic structure.

In his concluding paragraphs, Smith suggests that his approach, which situates early Christianity in its Greco-Roman context, "can provide a surer basis for historical reconstruction of Christian origins" and allow for "a greater appreciation for the diversity of early Christian social formation and theological elaboration." "Furthermore," he adds, "if we take full account of the richness of the earliest Christian meal tradition, we can find in it models for renewal of Christian theology and liturgy today toward a greater focus on community" (p. 287).

In the end, however, Smith's earnest attempt to broaden the discussion of Christian origins effectively narrows it with an analytical approach that is overly reductive. Although he successfully demonstrates the influence of Greco-Roman banquets on the world of early Christianity, his single-minded focus on only one aspect of the tradition eclipses the important subtleties that make the Eucharist (not to mention early Christianity as a whole) the fascinating, syncretistic tradition it is. While it is undeniable that the various meal traditions Smith analyzes do reflect the influence of Greco-Roman customs, Smith's typology oversimplifies the issues and presents a deceptively monolithic approach.

For example, the main focus on Greco-Roman traditions as the overarching framework almost entirely effaces...

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