book
From Symposium to Eucharist: The Banquet in the Early Christian World
Smith, Dennis E. From Symposium to Eucharist: The Banquet in the Early Christian World. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003.
Why this matters here
Dennis Smith situates early Christian meals in the wider banquet culture of status, reciprocity, and exclusion. When Others Become Leaders uses Luke’s teaching against reciprocal invitation to show leadership that reorganizes who the table is for. Smith maps meal practice and social rank; the book asks what power-with looks like when a meal stops being organized around those who can repay.
