Dietary Restrictions and Other Forms of Control

@indonesia-phil said
At Holy Communion, Christians are encouraged to eat the body of Christ and drink his blood. I've never done it myself, but it doesn't sound very nice.

Since it is not possible to do that in a literal sense, then it must mean something else.

@rajk999 said
Since it is not possible to do that in a literal sense, then it must mean something else.

Yeah, I guess the meat would have gone off a bit by now. Symbolic ritualised cannibalism?

@indonesia-phil said
At Holy Communion, Christians are encouraged to eat the body of Christ and drink his blood. I've never done it myself, but it doesn't sound very nice.

This stems from the metaphor Jesus spoke during the Last Supper.

Only the Catholics say that the bread and wine are magically transformed into the actual body and blood of Christ. During the Last Supper, "While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." (Matthew 26:26-28) This is metaphor. It was bread and wine, not actual flesh and blood. It is entirely celebratory of the new covenant.

"Many denominations partake of the Communion, or Holy Eucharist. Churches in which worship is a more formal, liturgical style are very likely to celebrate Communion every week. These include the Roman Catholic Church, the Episcopal Church USA, the Orthodox Church in America, the Antiochan Orthodox Christian Diocese of North America, the Serbian Orthodox Church of the USA and Canada, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North America, and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA.

"Denominations with a less liturgical structure often do not celebrate Communion weekly. However, some that do are the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Christian Church and Churches of Christ, the Church of Christ and the Plymouth Brethren.

"There are a number of denominations in which individual congregations are allowed to decide for themselves how often to celebrate Communion. The United Methodist Church states that "communion may be celebrated as often as desired." The Christian reformed Church in North America allows freedom, but requires Communion to be celebrated at least four times per year. The International Pentecostal Holiness Church requires it at least once per year. Many other independent churches, not affiliated with a particular denomination, may choose to celebrate Communion weekly."

https://classroom.synonym.com/how-often-should-protestants-take-communion-12087375.html

@indonesia-phil said
Yeah, I guess the meat would have gone off a bit by now. Symbolic ritualised cannibalism?

One of sonship's doctrinal hobbyhorses manifested itself in monologues [threads] on the topic of "Eating Jesus".

@rajk999 said
To what extent are Christian churches justified in imposing dietary and other restrictions on their members, which are not found in the bible. There is quite a lot of that going around.

In the early days of the Catholic Church scaring people with eternity in hellfire was sufficient to control them. That doctrine has less appeal now for some reason. Instead there are re ...[text shortened]... n etc and in some cases churches are promoting veganism.

Looks like anything to exercise control.

There is not a canonical requirement in Orthodoxy to fast on certain days, but it is an advised practice and adult members of the church in good health are expected to strive towards keeping these fast days as an act of veneration for Christ.

Some background on this:

The Christians inherited the tradition of fasting from the Jews. Jesus, too, gave examples of fasting to his disciples, most notably preceding his forty days in the desert when he was tempted by the devil (Matt 4:1-11).

"...you fast on Wednesdays and Fridays" (Didache 8:1). That Wednesday and Friday fasting was general practice in early Christianity is attested by the first or early second century writing known as The Didache, or Teaching of the Twelve Apostles; outside of the Eastern Church it was not generally recognized that this fasting tradition had been preserved unchanged from such an early date until the discovery of Greek and Latin mss. of The Didache in 1873 and 1900 respectively.

https://orthodoxwiki.org/Fasting#Fasting_days

It's actually the case that fasting is older than the Bible.