Raised on Christian Milk: Food and the Formation of the Soul in Early Christianity by John David Penniman (review)

Raised on Christian Milk is a revision of Penniman's doctoral dissertation (Fordham University, 2015, supervised by Benjamin Dunning) and, as such, is aimed at a scholarly audience. Comprising an introduction, six chapters, and a conclusion, the book examines how early Christians received, interpreted, and appropriated the apostle Paul's admonition in 1 Cor 3:1-3, particularly his words, "I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food" (NRSV).

Penniman limits his conversation partners to Philo, Clement of Alexandria, Irenaeus of Lyon, Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, and Augustine of Hippo. His interaction with each is full and rich, if not exhaustive.

The introduction lays the foundation of the book. Starting with Feuerbach's dictum "Man is what he eats" (p. 1), P. explores how eating well is the basis for human formation and group identity. For instance, eating kosher/clean foods was an identity marker of God's people. Likewise, in the Roman Empire, what one ate and where one sat at a formal meal (deipnon) determined one's status. Hence, humans become what they eat.

By using the language of food, the apostle Paul likewise draws a relationship between nourishment and identity formation. But for Paul "food" is more than a mere metaphor; it is a symbol of reality (p. 19). He believes church members feed on actual food, albeit spiritual in nature. To use Tertullian's description of Emperor Severus's son Caracalla: he was "raised on Christian milk" (p. 9).

In chap. 1, P. examines the complex history of food within the ancient and early Greco-Roman context, interacting primarily with Hippocrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Since human consumption takes place in a cultural setting, both biology and sociology play a significant role in human development. In the Roman imperial era, breast milk was considered a crucial part of locating one's place in the Roman Imperium (p. 50). The breast from which one ate—elite, slave, citizen, poor—determined one's status. A mother's breast and her milk were deemed the source and means of a child's initial nourishment and potential development—physical, sociological, intellectual, and psychological.

Chapter 2 finds P. in conversation with his interlocutors in order to gain insight into how early Jewish and Christian communities viewed spiritual food as a source of strength. He moves from Philo, a hellenized Jew, whose life spanned the late Republic and early empire to the apostle Paul, the Pharisee turned Christ-follower, who spoke of milk as a dynamic symbol of spiritual immaturity. But P. is not concerned with the meaning of Paul's words in the text, as much as he is with how they were received by the early church.

In chap. 3, P. interacts with Irenaeus and Clement. The former used breast-feeding as symbolic of spiritual nourishment for believers while living in the world. The milk of the Word sustained them in their journey through life. Clement, on the other hand, believed a child born into the world grew into manhood through acts of disobedience and had to be born again, that is, to revert to infancy and innocence. Then the newborn Christian looked to the milk of the Word to sustain him throughout his Christian life (p. 94). Clement also saw spiritual "breast-feeding" as a means of combating Gnosticism.

In chap. 4, the reader discovers that Origen divided Christian food into three categories—milk, vegetables, and meat—representing three stages of maturity. These tiers were fixed, and believers within each category remained there. Origen designed curriculum to support those within each respective group. Hence, food was apportioned to the capacity of the soul. For Origen, breast-feeding was nourishment for infants only, a stark contrast with Irenaeus and Clement.

In chap. 5, P. discusses Gregory of Nyssa's treatise on Saint Basil, which he used to show that...