Braun/Jesus and Addiction, 10. Our Religion Compels us to make a Distinction

Inspired by the possibilities suggested by Claude Grignon, this chapter suggests that scholars pay attention to commensal groups in antiquity, but asking not what people did at meals (though that too, of course), but what they did with meals and food. This seemingly small but significant shift in scholarly focus will lend detail, specificity, and conceptual robustness to our work and help us to close in on the differences in nuance and focus of early Christian commensal practices.