ABSTRACT
A key thread running through this study has been the function of dietary practices in identifying people as Christians. In some cases, diet has situated individuals within a continuing ascetic strand of Christian tradition exemplified by particular figures such as John the Baptist, hermits in the Egyptian desert, and well-known personalities of the modern era like John Newton and John Wesley. More frequently, dietary practices have been located in a community context, with individuals adopting particular disciplines in order to identify themselves as members of a specific Christian group. For example, the Rule of Benedict required abstinence from quadruped flesh, the Bible Christian Church imposed vegetarian discipline on its members, and the entire adult population of Reformation England was enjoined to abstain from red meat during Lent in obedience to its new royal head King Henry VIII and his successors. Christian communities, like other religious communities, define themselves
partly by contrasting their own dietary practices with those of the majority culture or of other communities, especially those with which they are competing for the label of doctrinal orthodoxy. Hence the relationship which develops between diet, community membership and orthodoxy is dynamic, with dietary discipline contributing to the construction of doctrinal boundaries between different religious groups. This suggests that Christian communities will have different food practices in different places, even during the same historical period, depending on which other religious groups are present in their locality. This chapter will explore in greater depth the role of food in defining and
reinforcing doctrinal boundaries. But a prior possibility, frequently voiced by Christians, first needs to be considered: that food rules of any kind are in fact inimical to Christianity, that much of the material so far presented in this book is an aberration of true Christian belief and practice, and that the identifying feature of Christianity distinguishing it from other religions is and should be its lack of concern with food, eating and diet.
