Kate Jackson, a teacher and Methodist group leader, has written a seven-week study guide that guide aims to “help individuals and groups to grow in their understanding . . . of the meals Jesus attended or held” (xi). After a useful introductory survey on meals, commensality, and the Jewish Sitz im Leben of communal eating in the first century, Jackson explores meals such as the Last Supper, the meal with Zaccheus, the parable of the great banquet, and the post-resurrection stories. Each chapter includes advice for study group leaders and suggestions for further reading.  

This is a useful book; my only criticism would be that Jackson—perhaps reasonably given the book’s aims—misses an opportunity to make a distinction between the historical Jesus and the communities for whom the gospel writers were writing. This might seem to be a finer academic point but there is value in considering not just how Jesus used meals but how the evangelists narrated and edited the stories of Jesus using meals. That way, we consider not just what Jesus might have taught but how those teachings were seen and filtered by the burgeoning Christian communities at the time. That said, church groups will certainly find this smart little volume very useful in breathing life into some of these well-known stories. Meals, as Jackson notes, were the “visual aids” that helped to teach and enact the kingdom of God. 

Ronan McLaverty-Head, Worcester