Gluttony

Ancient Greece and Rome

In the ancient Western world, Greeks and Romans embraced polytheistic mythologies and pantheons of gods that embodied complex matrices of social relations, rituals, and stories of origin. The Roman Empire was especially invested in ritual events that fostered a sense of duty and loyalty to the state and the emperor, who was in many ways a human extension of the deities. Religious festivals honoring the gods were often extravagant, public events that provided an occasion for the norms of society to be temporarily suspended, and participants were encouraged to indulge in the excesses of food, drink, dance, and all manner of conviviality. These traditional belief systems and pagan practices stood in sharp contrast to the emergent tenets of Christianity.

Early Christians

Romans generally combined elements of other belief systems—most notably that of the Greeks—into their religious practice. However, early Christian theologians openly condemned and directly refuted the festive celebrations integral to Roman religious expression. Monks, communities of men devoted to the ascetic practices of various Christian religious orders, vowed to live somewhat apart from the secular world and its trappings and relinquished any claim to worldly goods. In their earliest recorded writings, Christian monastic leaders advocated more temperate, contemplative acts of devotion, modeled after the example of the martyred Jesus Christ, whom they recognized as the only son of a singular and omnipotent God. The vices of gluttony permeated the writings of Christian monks as early as the 4th century.

During the 3rd century, the Roman government aggressively persecuted Christian extremists on the grounds that their teachings challenged the authority of the state and disrupted society. Christian worship rituals such as communion, which called for the symbolic consumption of the body and blood of Christ, were largely misunderstood and viewed with great skepticism. The average Roman also may have felt that Christian forms of devotion angered the ancient Gods and had the potential to threaten the balance of nature. Their fears sporadically materialized in the form of threats and violence against Christian practitioners; as a result, significant numbers of Christians fled Rome, seeking safety in the far reaches of the empire. Those who settled in Egypt near the Nile Delta subsisted on little sleep or food, solitary work, prayer, and meditation. Their primary objective was to follow a strict interpretation of Christ's teachings without seeking public recognition or validation of their efforts.

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