Transformation 1–11 © The Author(s) 2014 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0265378814537757 trn.sagepub.com Sharing Food and Breaking Boundaries: Reading of Acts 10–11: 18 as a key to Luke’s Ecumenical Agenda in Acts Thomas O’Loughlin University of Nottingham, UK Abstract In Acts 10–11: 18, Luke use a set of connected stories about Peter, shared eating, and food to explore issues of Christian boundaries and the boundaries between Christians. Luke’s presentation of the apostolic history argues for a genuine ecumenism between Jewish and Gentile Christians characterized and enacted through commensality. Moreover, when this commensality within the Eucharistic pattern of all early Christian community meals, we see that it has a bearing on how Luke viewed the Christian symposium; while it has definite implications for Christian Eucharistic sharing/ecumenism today. Keywords Acts, commensality, ecumenism, Eucharist, food, inter-communion, Luke, meals, Peter, symposium In Acts 10–11:18 Luke presents us with a series of meals whose memory he considers of impor- tance in his vision of a world church: 1 one that reaches from Jerusalem out to the ends of the earth. 2 Moreover, these meals were recalled by him in such a manner that they were intended to challenge the already received wisdom of the churches in which his stories were being heard. 3 Recalling the structure and salient points of Luke’s narrative allows us to speculate on some of the tensions pre- sent in early communities, while offering us material for reflection on our own practice which may have a bearing on certain issues in both missiology and ecumenism. Peter’s meals The section of Acts with which I am concerned – 10: 1–11: 18 – is conventionally seen as forming a unit within a larger set of stories about Peter as a missionary (9: 31–11: 18), 4 and this particular section is usually characterized not in terms of meals but in terms of its final outcome: the conversion of Cornelius and his household. 5 However, instead of reading the story as one about conversion, or indeed its immediate Sitz im Leben in the churches where Luke was being read, Corresponding author: Thomas O’Loughlin, University of Nottingham, Room C32, Department of Theology and Religious Studies, Humanities Building, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK. Email: Thomas.Oloughlin@nottingham.ac.uk 537757TRN 0 0 10.1177/0265378814537757TransformationO’Loughlin research-article 2014 Article