While they were eating: Lukan mission through domestic hospitality and ministry as table-service, and implications for the contemporary church release_hfoj7srpsrh25n2eqf6ruifidi

Abstract

"The aim of this thesis is to show how in Luke's Gospel, Jesus and the early church relied on food and hospitality provided in homes to propagate the mission of bringing the good news of the kingdom of God to Israel, and subsequently to Gentiles. Secondly, in Luke-Acts provision of meals in homes was also a means of serving Christ and one another through table ministry. These two factors of mission and ministry in Luke through domestic hospitality can provide theological impetus for contemporary Christian communities to think and reflect more intentionally regarding food and hospitality in their own contexts. Though research and study into the various aspects of food have advanced in recent years through various disciplines, theological research has not been so generous in its handling of food. Although food preparation and cooks have been historically ignored by scholars, it is argued that hospitality is best expressed in the sharing of food. A definition of hospitality that sees its normal and natural expression through the sharing of meals is posited, rather than being defined as "welcoming strangers". Meals are universal "cultural sites" that enable human formation and deepen bonds with others. Food needs to be taken more seriously in the theological enterprise, as does considering food as theology. The Hebrew Bible, ancient Near East, Greco-Roman banquet customs, and intertestamental Jewish literature provide the cultural and historical backdrop for Luke's Gospel. And as such, an engagement with how food and hospitality was regarded within these texts and cultures is examined. Regarding the Hebrew Bible, it will be shown that food and meals played a significant, if not central, role in Israel's covenant identity with Yahweh, and with one another. Special attention is given to whether Jewish groups in this period, as well as Luke's Gospel, were influenced or not by the Greco-Roman banquet tradition of the symposium. The Greco-Roman Symposium has been offered by scholars as a theory for the basis of Jesus' din [...]
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