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It’s the first day of class. Autumn is drawing a cloak of cold and color over the city. You arrive with that peculiar nervousness you’ve had at the beginning of classes your entire life, from kindergarten on. Yet you open the door and, to your surprise, find a feast — roast pork, stewed apples, prosciutto pasta. This class may be different, you think.

That was Deirdre Good’s intention, anyway. “With any decent form of teaching,” says Good, a professor of New Testament at the General Theological Seminary, “you’ve got to show a form of hospitality.”

Cooking dinner for your class (and holding class in your house) may sound extreme, but Good was simply putting two and two together: she enjoys cooking, and many of her evening students would be coming from out of town needing dinner.

In that first class, one student looked down at his plate and quietly said to Good, “this is the best first seminar I’ve ever had.”

Another student wanted to contribute food to a meal, but her cramped apartment lacked a proper kitchen. Good invited her to come early to use hers, and soon the student was stewing apples with spices, the rich perfume welcoming her fellow students.

For Good, the pre-class meals were a way of updating the symposia tradition of Jesus’ time. Symposia were once public events hosted by people who could bring others together. Jesus appeared at many meals like this. His foot-washing was at a symposium, for instance, and he was anointed at another. “Lots of teaching and sacramental actions went on in this environment. In the ancient world, the dining room was a public space.”

Symposium literally means “bringing cups together.” But it’s an easy jump to “breaking bread together,” especially when it’s a New Testament class. As Good says, “Breaking bread together and studying the word is my idea of a little foretaste of the next life.”

--Nathan Brockman

Roast Pork
5-6-lb. boneless pork loin
olive oil
salt
freshly ground black pepper
3 tbsp. chopped fresh rosemary leaves
6 rosemary branches

1. Preheat oven to 250°. Rub a 5-6-lb. boneless pork loin with olive oil and season with salt, freshly ground black pepper, and 3 tbsp. chopped fresh rosemary leaves.

2. Lay 6 rosemary branches on top of roast, then tie up roast with cooking twine.

3. Put roast into a heavy roasting pan and brown on all sides on top of stove over medium-high heat, then roast in oven to an internal temperature of 150°, about 2 hours.

Set roast aside for 20 minutes before carving.

Cinnamon Stewed Apples
6 cups chopped peeled Granny Smith apples (about 2 pounds)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup apple juice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Combine all ingredients in a large, heavy saucepan.
Cover and cook over medium-low heat 20 minutes or until apples are tender.

Recipes from Deirdre Good. Roast Pork adapted from Saveur; Cinnamon Stewed Apples adapted from Cooking Light.

Soundtrack: The Doxology

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