Imagining Jesus, with food

Authors

• Michel Desjardins Wilfrid Laurier University

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30674/scripta.67446

Keywords:

Food -- Religious aspects -- Comparative studies, Eating and meals, Diet, Cooking, Food habits, Nutrition, Fasting, Jesus Christ -- Historicity, Church history, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Charity

Abstract

This article applies modern, cross-cultural, anthropologically-grounded food data to the historical Jesus. It explores five themes that have emerged from my research on the intersection of spirituality and food in contemporary life, across religions: food offerings, dietary restrictions, fasting, food prepared for special religious occasions, and charity. The analysis brings together previous historical-critical research on Christian origins and current research on food in order to shed new light on the role of food in a first century Jewish person’s life. The result is a more human, possibly more historically-realistic, portrait of Jesus in keeping with broad sectors of religious life across traditions.