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Pseudo Dr. J Who Fills Up Your Comments Page - 2003-12-09 19:05:24
I'm always fascinated by people who prefer to pay bills instead of party/eat. Aaaanyway. I don't really have an abstract; hmm, I probably should by this point, shouldn't I? OKAY. A quick 10-point summary. 1: The early Christians were supposedly �equality�driven (the old, �neither slave nor free� bull shit); 2: the early Christians shared a meal whenever they met (in houses, by the way); 3) the early Christians, especially the urban communities, were steeped in Roman tradition; 4) Roman tradition dictated that, at a meal, social ranking was to be practised�that is, the upper classes would recline at the table, the lower classes would sit, and the slaves would serve; 5) Some scholars try to say that all of the Christians reclined for the sake of equality; 6) Roman dining traditions dictate that nine is the standard number for reclining guests; 7) Christian communities at this time could have been as large as 50-100; 8) There is no evidence to suggest that the Christians tried to abolish or even discussed the possibility of abolishing the social ranking at the table; 9) Allowing the possibility of social ranking means that there would be no problem accommodating 50 members in a dining room, since they could sit, stand, and recline, whereas disallowing it makes it impossible to host that large of a number in the dining room; 10) THEREFORE, the Christians practised social hierarchy at their banquets. ACK! That is long, sorry. But then, you asked for it, now didn�t ya?
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