Full Description
This volume utilizes Catherine Bell's ritual theory to shed new light on the many rituals reflected in ancient Mediterranean texts. In recent decades scholars of religion have come to realize that ritual and bodily practices are just as important for religion as beliefs and doctrine. With the development of ritual studies in the 1990s there arose a critical framework for investigating ritual and practice. Only recently, however, has Bell's theorizing been employed to study the rituals portrayed in ancient texts. This cross-disciplinary examination assesses the utility of Bell's theorizing for studying the textual evidence for rituals of the ancient Near East, the Hebrew Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the New Testament, and other early Christian literature.
The contributors to this volume illustrate a path away from regarding rituals as inert and fixed and toward a more complex and vibrant interactive model of ritual behaviour. In this volume, as each scholar works to recover the traces of long-past rituals in a particular set of materials, these and other concepts are consciously employed to guide or challenge the investigation, pushing beyond previous conclusions about ancient rituals. The contributors' attention to theory, and especially the social context, practical function, and symbolic interpretation, set this collection apart from studies that consider the rituals in more traditional textual ways.
Contents
Preface
Introduction - Catherine Bell and the Ancient Mediterranean Ritual World
(Richard E. DeMaris and Jonathan Schwiebert)
1- Ritual Performance and Hittite Royal Ideology in Dialogue with Catherine Bell's Power of Ritualization
(Ada Taggar Cohen, Doshisha University)
2- The Relevance of Catherine Bell's Approach to Ritualization for Analysis of Pentateuchal Ritual Texts
(Roy E. Gane, Andrews University)
3- "Open Thine Eyes and See the Words": The Ritualization of Hezekiah's Responses to the Neo-Assyrian Crisis
(Dan Belnap, Brigham Young University)
4- Creating a Virtual Holy Center in the Dead Sea Sect
(Hannah K. Harrington, Patten University)
5- The Gospel of Mark through a Ritual Lens
(Richard E. DeMaris, Valparaiso University)
6- Ritualization and Practice in Corinth
(Jonathan Schwiebert, Lenoir-Rhyne University)
7- The Musical Body as a Locus of Power in Early Christian Ritual: An Application of Catherine Bell
(Jade Weimer, University of Manitoba)
8- Making the Sign of the Cross: To Do and to Undo
(Ritva H. Williams, St. Stephen's Lutheran Church, Cedar Rapids)
9- Catherine Bell in the Biblical World
(Russell C. D. Arnold, Regis University)
Bibliography
Indices - Index of Modern Scholars, Index of Primary Sources, and Subject Index
