The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Ritual

Description

Scholars of religion have long assumed that ritual and belief constitute the fundamental building blocks of religious traditions and that these two components of religion are interrelated and interdependent in significant ways. Generations of New Testament and Early Christian scholars have produced detailed analyses of the belief systems of nascent Christian communities, including their ideological and political dimensions, but have by and large ignored ritual as an important element of early Christian religion and as a factor contributing to the rise and the organization of the movement. In recent years, however, scholars of early Christianity have begun to use ritual as an analytical tool for describing and explaining Christian origins and the early history of the movement. Such a development has created a momentum toward producing a more comprehensive volume on the ritual world of Early Christianity employing advances made in the field of ritual studies. The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Ritual gives a manifold account of the ritual world of early Christianity from the beginning of the movement up to the fifth century. The volume introduces relevant theories and approaches; central topics of ritual life in the cultural world of early Christianity; and important Christian ritual themes and practices in emerging Christian groups and factions. Cover The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Ritual Copyright Contents List of Figures and Tables Abbreviations Notes on Contributors PART I RITUAL THEORY 1. Introduction: Ritual in the Study of Early Christianity 2. Ritualization and Ritual Invention 3. Ritual as Action, Performance, and Practice 4. Ritual, Identity, and Emotion 5. Ritual and Embodied Cognition 6. Ritual and Cooperation 7. Ritual and Transmission PART II RITUAL IN THE ANCIENT MEDITERRANEAN WORLD 8. Ancient Sanctuaries 9. Associations, Guilds, Clubs 10. Household and Family 11. Magic 12. Communal Meals 13. Purification 14. Prayer 15. Music 16. Sacrifice and Votives 17. Pilgrimage and Festivals 18. Divination 19. Initiation 20. Mortuary Rituals 21. Ritual and Texts PART III RITUAL IN NASCENT CHRISTIANITY 22. Water Ritual 23. Meal Practices 24. Rituals of Reintegration 25. Ritual and Healing 26. Sacrificial Practice and Language 27. Ritual and Religious Experience 28. Ritual and Emerging Church Hierarchy 29. Ritual and Orthodoxy PART IV RITUAL IN THE ANCIENT CHURCH 30. Christian Initiation 31. Eucharistic Practices 32. Ritualizing Time 33. Early Christian Prayer 34. Ritual and Early Christian Art 35. Hymns and Psalmody 36. Wedding Rituals and Episcopal Power 37. Women’s Rituals and Women’s Ritualizing 38. Fasting as an Ascetic Ritual 39. The Cult of Saints 40. Ritual and the Christianization of Urban Space Index