Of widows and meals : communal meals in the book of Acts / Reta Halteman Finger.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Finger, Reta Halteman, 1940-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Bible. Acts--Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Bible.

Bible. Acts.

Dinners and dining in the Bible.

Physical Description:

x, 326 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Grand Rapids, Mich. : William B. Eerdmans Pub., 2007.

Summary:

Though "community" has become a common byword in the contemporary Western church, the practice of communal sharing has effectively fallen by the wayside. Unfortunately, it is often the poor who are left wanting because we no longer come together. Reta Halteman Finger finds a solution to this modern problem by learning from the ancient Mediterranean Christian culture of community. In the earliest Jerusalem church, in holding the responsibility for preparing and serving communal meals, women were given a place of honor. With the table fellowship and goods sharing of the early church, Luke says, there were no needy persons among them (Acts 4: 34). Finger thoroughly examines this agape-meal tradition, challenging traditional interpretations of the community of goods in the Jerusalem church and proving that the communal sharing lasted for hundreds of years longer than previously assumed. "Of Widows and Meals" begins a discussion of need in community that can revolutionize the contemporary church's interaction with the world at large.

Contents:

Introduction

Stating the question : a middle-class bias against communal sharing?

Economic sharing in Acts? a history of (mis)interpretation

Naming the meal : agape, Eucharist, bread-breaking

Meals on wheels for the widows? common meals versus poor relief

From the top down : socio-economic structures of an agrarian society

Jerusalem : productive city on a hill

How the non-elite survived : social relations and community values

Copycats? Essene communal life as model

Never eat alone! food and meals as cultural symbols

"A glutton and a drunkard" : Jesus and table fellowship

"Upstairs, downstairs" : widows and other women in dining room and kitchen

The intentional community : an exegesis of Acts 2:41-47

The widows' complaint : an exegesis of Acts 5:42-6:1-6

Daily commensality : a necessity then, impractical today?

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [287]-310) and indexes.

ISBN:

9780802830531

0802830536

OCLC:

76864131