Fresco of a feast from Pompeii housed at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale (Naples) [Wikimedia]

One of the most common aspects of human experience is the encounter with food. Its consumption is routine and necessary for our survival. The experience of eating engages the wholeness of our embodied selves, not just our taste, smell, and sight, but also the biology of our digestion and nourishment. Food can please and disgust our senses, it can satisfy and leave us wanting, and it can settle and unsettle our bellies. Traditions surrounding food not only help define our cultural contexts, but also connect us to our histories when, for example, families pass down recipes from generation to generation. Sharing food helps mark our social boundaries and communal connections, including our religious affiliations. Although numerous and conditioned by history, culture, and geography, our experiences with food and its significance are ripe subjects for scholarly engagement.

The papers published here were originally presented at the 2019 SBL Annual Meeting in San Diego, California at a review panel of Meredith J. C. Warren’s recent book, Food and Transformation in Ancient Mediterranean Literature (WGRWSup 14; Atlanta: SBL Press, 2019). The “Religious Experience in Antiquity” section of SBL organized this panel to examine how Warren’s monograph - itself a lavish feast - takes the reader on a visite gastronomique of how various peoples in the ancient Mediterranean thought about and used food to grapple with their experiences and to expand their imaginations. AJR is pleased to bring this review panel to a broader audience.

Catherine Playoust is the Deputy Master of Catholic Theological College (University of Divinity) in Melbourne, Australia and a member of its Department of Biblical Studies.

Frederick S. Tappenden is Professor of Theology at St. Stephen’s College at the University of Alberta.