Winter 2021/Fuller Online

OT568

Altmann

‌OT568: FOOD, FAMINE, AND FEASTING IN THE OLD TESTAMENT (4 Units: 160 hours). Peter Altmann.

DESCRIPTION: Are we what we eat? Long viewed as secondary to more "spiritual" concerns, the practical and social matters of eating and drinking appear at decisive points in the texts of the Old (as well as the New) Testament. In this course we will investigate the dynamics surrounding the material, social, religious, political, and theological aspects of eating and drinking in the Old Testament. Through attention to these details in and behind the ancient texts, we will seek intersections between these biblical texts, church practices, and our current lives.

LEARNING OUTCOMES: As a result of successful participation in this course, students will demonstrate the ability (1) to articulate the central role of food and drink in worship of God; (2) to identify and interpret key OT texts concerning hospitality; (3) to develop an overall statement for God’s relationship with food and drink according to the Old Testament; (4) to recognize the perspectives of different OT texts on sacrifice and especially on the central feasts of Passover-Unleavened Bread, Weeks, and Booths with regard to food and feasting; (5) to reflect on the confluence and divergence of the roles of eating and drinking in the Old Testament in comparison to one’s own cultural context; (6) to construct connections between the theologies of food and drink in the OT and the Eucharist/Lord’s Supper in the NT; and (7) to provide a close reading of a biblical text in its historical context(s) highlighting the dynamics of food/drink for the meaning of the text as a whole.

RELATIONSHIP TO PROGRAM LEARNING OUTCOMES: Electives fulfill the MAT PLO that states “Students will have demonstrated academic capacities appropriate to an area of focus in a theological discipline or to interdisciplinary theological study.” Addresses MAICS Area of Interest Class “Students will have demonstrated capacities to pursue vocations that engage the mission of God globally.”

COURSE FORMAT: This course will be conducted online on a ten-week schedule aligned with Fuller’s academic calendar for a total of 40 instructional hours, which is outlined below in the assignment and assessment section. Students are required to interact with the material, with each other, and with the instructor regularly through online discussions, reading, and other assignments that promote active learning.

REQUIRED READING: 800 total pages required.

Select Bible texts in English (using the NRSV, TNIV, or CEB) [240 pages assigned]

Selected readings available electronically through Fuller Library [527 pages]:

Altmann, Peter. “Feast and Famine: Lack as a Backdrop for Plenty,” in Feasting in the Archaeology and Texts of the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near East (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 2014), 149–78. [30 pp.] (available electronically through Fuller Library)

Altmann, Peter. “‌Making the Meal Sacred in the Old Testament: Complexities and Possibilities for Christian Appropriation,” Sacrality and Materiality: Locating Intersections (ed. R. Kunz and R. Geselbrecht; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2015), 123-136. [14 pp.] (available electronically through Fuller Library)

Davis, Ellen, Scripture, Culture, and Agriculture: An Agrarian Reading of the Bible. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009, 21–65. [45 pp.] (available electronically through Fuller Library)

de Hemmer Gudme, Anne Katrine, “‘If I were hungry, I would not tell you” (Ps 50, 12),’ Perspectives on the Care and Feeding of the Gods in the Hebrew Bible,” SJOT 28 (2014): 172–84 [13 pp] (available electronically through Fuller Library)

Dietler, Michael. “Theorizing the Feast: Rituals of Consumption, Commensal Politics, and Power in African Contexts.” in Feasts: Archaeological and Ethnographic Perspectives on Food, Politics, and Power. Edited by B. Hayden. (Washington D.C.: Smithsonian, 2001), 65–114. [59 pp.] (available electronically through Fuller Library)

Douglas, Mary, “Deciphering a Meal,” in Implicit Meanings (London: Routledge, 1975), 249–75. [26 pp.] (available electronically through Fuller Library)

Firmage, Edwin B. “The Biblical Dietary Laws and the Concept of Holiness” in Studies in the Pentateuch. Edited by J. A. Emerton. (Leiden: Brill, 1990), 177-208. [32 pp.] (available electronically through Fuller Library)

Hallo, W.W. Context of Scripture (Various excerpts). [20 pp.] https://search-ebscohost-com.fuller.idm.oclc.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&AN=132930&site=ehost-live

Hendel, Ronald. “Table and Altar: The Anthropology of Food in the Priestly Torah,” in To Break Every Yoke: Essays in Honor of Marvin L. Chaney. Edited by R. B. Coote and N. K. Gottwald. (Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2007), 131-48. [18 pp.] http://www.academia.edu/16417548/ Table_and_Altar_The_Anthropology_of_Food_in_the_Priestly_Torah

Houston, Walter J. “Towards an Integrated Reading of the Dietary Laws of Leviticus.” In The Book of Leviticus: Composition and Reception. Ed. R. Rendtorff and R. A. Kugler(Leiden: Brill, 2003), 142-161. [20 pp.] (available electronically through Fuller Library)

James, Elaine T. “The Agrarian Landscape.” In Landscapes of the Song of Songs: Poetry and Place (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017), 25–54 [30 pp.] (available electronically through Fuller Library)

MacDonald, Nathan “Milk and Honey: The Diet of the Israelites”in Not Bread Alone: The Uses of Food in the Old Testament (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 47-69. [23 pp.] (available electronically through Fuller Library)

MacDonald, Nathan “Mixed Menus: The Confusion of Food in Judges,” in Not Bread Alone: The Uses of Food in the Old Testament (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 100–133.[33 pp.] (available electronically through Fuller Library)

MacDonald, “You Are How You Eat: Food and Identity in the Post-exilic Period,” in Not Bread Alone: The Uses of Food in the Old Testament (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 196–218.[22 pp.] (available electronically through Fuller Library)

Meyers, Carol Menu: Royal Repasts and Social Class in Biblical Israel,” in Feasting in the Archaeology and Texts of the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near East (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 2014), 129–47. [19 pp.] https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/fuller/reader.action?docID=3155719&ppg=213

Pardee, Dennis. Ritual and Cult at Ugarit (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2002), 77-83. [6 pp.] (available electronically through Fuller Library)

Ruiz “Abram and Sarai Cross the Border: A Reading of Genesis 12:10-20,” in Readings from the Edges: The Bible and People on the Move (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2011) 49–57 [9 pp.] (available electronically through Fuller Library)

Wirzba, Norman. Faith and Food: A Theology of Eating. Cambridge University Press, 2011. ISBN: 978-0521146241, Pub. Price $30.99. [110 pages assigned] (available electronically through Fuller Library)

Wong, “The Subversive Act of Breaking Bread: How the Eucharist Transforms the Immigration Conversation,” in Religion and Politics in America's Borderlands (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2013), 130–44 [15 pp.] (available electronically through Fuller Library)

Selected readings on e-Reserve [33 pages]:

Altmann, Peter. “Sacred Meals and Feasts In the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible and its Environment: A ‘Treasure Chest’ for Early Christian Reflection,” in The Eucharist – Its Origins and Contexts Sacred Meal, Communal Meal, Table Fellowship, and the Eucharist – Late Antiquity, Early Judaism and Early Christianity (ed. D. Hellholm and D. Sänger; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2017), 1:23-41 [18 pp.]

Machinist, Peter, “Achaemenid Persia as Spectacle: Reactions from Two Peripheral Voices: Aseschylus, The Persians and the Biblical Book of Esther,” in Eretz-Israel 33 (2018): *109–*23 [15 pp.]

REQUIRED VIEWING:

Babette’s Feast, Ratatouille, Chocolat, various short YouTube videos