ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the main features of the Roman classical normative discourse about food as it appears from the sources of western late antiquity. It focuses on the construction of a specifically Christian set of norms surrounding food in late antiquity, its reception by the various forms of “Christianities”, and the issues and tensions that were caused, particularly regarding sociability and the dilemma between active and contemplative life. The chapter addresses the specific case of meat in the early western coenobitic discourse as it illustrates how the influence of a new Christian discourse might have impacted on the dietetic and medical discourse itself. The various early Christian discourses on food had actually more to do with the classical Greco-Roman discourse on food, health and morality than with anything related to early Christian theology. Theoretically, the dominant understanding of a Christian life leaves no space for the consumption of delicious, sophisticated, and excessive food.
