Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Ritual and Worship in the Hebrew Bible written by Samuel E. Balentine and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-09-16 with total page 640 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ritual has a primal connection to the idea that a transcendent order - numinous and mysterious, supranatural and elusive, divine and wholly other - gives meaning and purpose to life. The construction of rites and rituals enables humans to conceive and apprehend this transcendent order, to symbolize it and interact with it, to postulate its truths in the face of contradicting realities and to repair them when they have been breached or diminished. This Handbook provides a compendium of the information essential for constructing a comprehensive and integrated account of ritual and worship in the ancient world. Its focus on ritual and worship from the perspective of biblical studies, as opposed to religious studies, highlights that the world of ritual and worship was a topic of central concern for the people of the Ancient Near East, including the world of the Bible. Given the scarcity of the material in the Bible itself, the authors in this collection use materials from the ancient Near East to provide a larger context for the practices of the biblical world, giving due attention to historical, anthropological, and social scientific methods that inform the context of biblical worship. The specifics of ritual and worship life-the sacred spaces, times, and actors in worship-are examined in detail, with essays covering both the divine and human aspects of the sacred dimension. The Oxford Handbook of Ritual and Worship in the Hebrew Bible considers several underlying concepts of ritual practice and closes with a theological outlook on worship and ritual from a variety of perspectives, demonstrating a fruitful exchange between biblical studies, ritual theory, and social science research.
Download or read book Knowledge by Ritual written by Dru Johnson and published by Eisenbrauns. This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What do rituals have to do with knowledge? Knowledge by Ritual examines the epistemological role of rites in Christian Scripture. By putting biblical rituals in conversation with philosophical and scientific views of knowledge, Johnson argues that knowing is a skilled adeptness in both the biblical literature and scientific enterprise. If rituals are a way of thinking in community akin to scientific communities, then the biblical emphasis on rites that lead to knowledge cannot be ignored. Practicing a rite to know occurs frequently in the Hebrew Bible. YHWH answers Abram's skepticism--"How shall I know that I will possess the land?"--with a ritual intended to make him know (Gen 15:7-21). The recurring rites of Sabbath (Exod 31:13) and dwelling in a Sukkah (Lev 23:43) direct Israel toward discernment of an event's enduring significance. Likewise, building stone memorials aims at the knowledge of generations to come (Josh 4:6). Though the New Testament appropriates the Torah rites through strategic reemployment, the primary questions of sacramental theology have often presumed that rites are symbolically encoded. Hence, understanding sacraments has sometimes been reduced to decoding the symbols of the rite. Knowledge by Ritual argues that the rites of Israel, as portrayed in the biblical texts, disposed Israelites to recognize something they could not have seen apart from their participation. By examining the epistemological function of rituals, Johnson's monograph gives readers a new set of questions to explore both the sacraments of Israel and contemporary sacramental theology.
Download or read book Deconstructing Sacramental Theology and Reconstructing Catholic Ritual written by Joseph Martos and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2015-05-12 with total page 487 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Catholic sacramental doctrine has lost much of its credibility. Baptized people leave the church, adolescents stop attending shortly after they are confirmed, supposedly indissoluble marriages regularly dissolve, few go to confession, and many do not believe in transubstantiation. Drawing upon his decades-long study of the sacraments, Martos reveals how teachings that seemed rooted in the scriptures and Catholic life have become unmoored from the contexts in which they arose, and why seemingly eternal truths are actually historically relative. After carefully constructing Catholic teaching from the church's own documents, he deconstructs it by demonstrating how biblical passages were misconstrued by patristic authors and how patristic writings were misunderstood by medieval scholastics. The long process of misinterpretation culminated in the dogmatic pronouncements of the Council of Trent, which continues to dominate Catholic thinking about the church's religious ceremonies. If the sacraments are released from their dogmatic baggage, Martos believes that the spiritual realities they symbolize can be celebrated in any human culture without being tied to their traditional rites.
Download or read book The Devil at Baptism written by H.A. Kelly and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2004-01-30 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Christian baptismal ceremony was at first quite simple; by the beginning of the third century it included complex anti-demonic rites. Henry Ansgar Kelly here describes the evolution of the rites of baptism from New Testament times to the present day and explores the impact of demonological theories on Christian liturgy. Kelly begins by identifying the nature and origins of the evil spirits that are referred to in the New Testament, which proved to be major subjects of speculation and theological development by the Church Fathers. He then traces the history both of Christian demonology and of the initiation rituals, clearly illustrating their parallel evolution and their interaction. In his analysis, Kelly examines not only the direct expression of demonological theory in the original ceremonies but also the symbolic reinterpretation of theoretically untenable rituals into allegorical dramas. An astute and ambitious work, 'The Devil at Baptism' covers all the anti-demonic rites of the catechumenate and baptismal services and compares developments in East and West since the emergence of Christianity. It will be essential reading for anyone interested in the development of Christian liturgy in particular and in the history of religion in general.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Ritual and Religion written by Timothy Insoll and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-10-27 with total page 1135 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive overview, by period and region, of the archaeology of ritual and religion. The coverage is global, and extends from the earliest prehistory to modern times. Written by over sixty renowned specialists, the Handbook presents the very best in current scholarship, and will also stimulate further research.
Download or read book Field Manual for the Archaeology of Ritual Religion and Magic written by C. Riley Augé and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2022-07-08 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By bringing together in one place specific objects, materials, and features indicating ritual, religious, or magical belief used by people around the world and through time, this tool will assist archaeologists in identifying evidence of belief-related behaviors and broadening their understanding of how those behaviors may also be seen through less obvious evidential lines. Instruction and templates for recording, typologizing, classifying, and analyzing ritual or magico-religious material culture are also provided to guide researchers in the survey, collection, and cataloging processes. The bulleted formatting and topical range make this a highly accessible work, while providing an incredible wealth of information in a single volume.
Download or read book Knowledge by Ritual written by Dru Johnson and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2016-01-21 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What do rituals have to do with knowledge? Knowledge by Ritual examines the epistemological role of rites in Christian Scripture. By putting biblical rituals in conversation with philosophical and scientific views of knowledge, Johnson argues that knowing is a skilled adeptness in both the biblical literature and scientific enterprise. If rituals are a way of thinking in community akin to scientific communities, then the biblical emphasis on rites that lead to knowledge cannot be ignored. Practicing a rite to know occurs frequently in the Hebrew Bible. YHWH answers Abram’s skepticism—“How shall I know that I will possess the land?”—with a ritual intended to make him know (Gen 15:7–21). The recurring rites of Sabbath (Exod 31:13) and dwelling in a Sukkah (Lev 23:43) direct Israel toward discernment of an event’s enduring significance. Likewise, building stone memorials aims at the knowledge of generations to come (Josh 4:6). Though the New Testament appropriates the Torah rites through strategic reemployment, the primary questions of sacramental theology have often presumed that rites are symbolically encoded. Hence, understanding sacraments has sometimes been reduced to decoding the symbols of the rite. Knowledge by Ritual argues that the rites of Israel, as portrayed in the biblical texts, disposed Israelites to recognize something they could not have seen apart from their participation. By examining the epistemological function of rituals, Johnson’s monograph gives readers a new set of questions to explore both the sacraments of Israel and contemporary sacramental theology.
Download or read book The Ideology of Ritual written by Frank H. Gorman and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 1990-01-01 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the Priestly writers, ritual was a fundamental form of theological reflection. This study analyses the conceptual categories of space, time and status in an effort to clarify the larger cultural and conceptual categories operative in the Priestly ritual system. Drawing on interpretative models derived from cultural anthropology, the author argues that Priestly creation theology forms a necessary context for understanding the Priestly rituals.>
Download or read book Religion of the Gods written by Kimberley Christine Patton and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2009-02-09 with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In many of the world's religions, both polytheistic and monotheistic, a seemingly enigmatic and paradoxical image is found--that of the god who worships. Various interpretations of this seeming paradox have been advanced. Some suggest that it represents sacrifice to a higher deity. Proponents of anthropomorphic projection say that the gods are just "big people" and that images of human religious action are simply projected onto the deities. However, such explanations do not do justice to the complexity and diversity of this phenomenon. In Religion of the Gods, Kimberley C. Patton uses a comparative approach to take up anew a longstanding challenge in ancient Greek religious iconography: why are the Olympian gods depicted on classical pottery making libations? The sacrificing gods in ancient Greece are compared to gods who perform rituals in six other religious traditions: the Vedic gods, the heterodox god Zurvan of early Zoroastrianism, the Old Norse god Odin, the Christian God and Christ, the God of Judaism, and Islam's Allah. Patton examines the comparative evidence from a cultural and historical perspective, uncovering deep structural resonances while also revealing crucial differences. Instead of looking for invisible recipients or lost myths, Patton proposes the new category of "divine reflexivity." Divinely performed ritual is a self-reflexive, self-expressive action that signals the origin of ritual in the divine and not the human realm. Above all, divine ritual is generative, both instigating and inspiring human religious activity. The religion practiced by the gods is both like and unlike human religious action. Seen from within the religious tradition, gods are not "big people," but other than human. Human ritual is directed outward to a divine being, but the gods practice ritual on their own behalf. "Cultic time," the symbiotic performance of ritual both in heaven and on earth, collapses the distinction between cult and theology each time ritual is performed. Offering the first comprehensive study and a new theory of this fascinating phenomenon, Religion of the Gods is a significant contribution to the fields of classics and comparative religion. Patton shows that the god who performs religious action is not an anomaly, but holds a meaningful place in the category of ritual and points to a phenomenologically universal structure within religion itself.
Download or read book The Cambridge Companion to Christian Philosophical Theology written by Charles Taliaferro and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Companion offers an up-to-date overview of the beliefs, doctrines, and practices of the key philosophical concepts at the heart of Christian theology. The sixteen chapters, commissioned specially for this volume, are written by an internationally recognized team of scholars and examine topics such as the Trinity, God's necessary existence, simplicity, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, goodness, eternity and providence, the incarnation, resurrection, atonement, sin and salvation, the problem of evil, church rites, revelation and miracles, prayer, and the afterlife. Written in non-technical, accessible language, they not only offer a synthesis of scholarship on these topics but also suggest questions and topics for further investigation.
Download or read book Reflections on Resemblance Ritual and Religion written by Brian K. Smith and published by Motilal Banarsidass Publishe. This book was released on 1998 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The classical Vedic texts that deal with large-scale sacrificial ritual and those writings that deal with domestic ritual have traditionally been treated as unrelated. The former are devoted to the explication of rituals that are dominated by wealthy male elites; the latter concern humble private ceremonies more open to famale participation. Reflections on Resemblance, Ritual and Religion argues that there is in fact, a fundamental connection between these two large and important bodies of Indic religious literature.
Download or read book Ritual and Pastoral Care written by Elaine Ramshaw and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 1987-01-01 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ritual can resonate to human need, and to this end there is much the ritualist can learn from the psychological insights into human development and personality familiar to those in the field of pastoral care.
Download or read book Ritual and Religion in the Xunzi written by T. C. Kline III and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 2014-06-17 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Challenges traditional views to consider Xunzi as a religious thinker. Xunzi, a founding figure in the Confucian tradition, is one of the worlds great philosophers and theorists of religion. For much of the last century, his work has been seen largely as critical of religion, particularly the popular beliefs and invocations of supernatural forces that underpin so many religious rituals. Contributors to this volume challenge this view and offer a more sophisticated picture of Xunzi. He emerges not as critic, but rather as an adherent of religion who seeks to give religious practices meaning even though many religious beliefs are mistaken or self-serving. Each essay offers a powerful illustration of Xunzi as both a religious devotee and as a philosopher of religion, drawing on a wide array of disciplines and methodologies.
Download or read book Archaeology Ritual Religion written by Timothy Insoll and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2004-04 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book re-examines the definitions of 'religion' and 'ritual' through a range of archaeological examples drawn from around the world and across time. It serves as an introduction to the theory and methodology of the archaeology of religion
Download or read book Birth Marriage and Death Ritual Religion and the Life Cycle in Tudor and Stuart England written by David Cressy and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 1997-05-29 with total page 662 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From childbirth and baptism through to courtship, weddings, and funerals, every stage in the life-cycle of Tudor and Stuart England was accompanied by ritual. Even under the protestantism of the reformed Church, the spiritual and social dramas of birth, marriage, and death were graced with elaborate ceremony. Powerful and controversial protocols were in operation, shaped and altered by the influences of the Reformation, the Revolution, and the Restoration. Each of the major rituals was potentially an arena for argument, ambiguity, and dissent. Ideally, as classic rites of passage, these ceremonies worked to bring people together. But they also set up traps into which people could stumble, and tests which not everybody could pass. In practice, ritual performance revealed frictions and fractures that everyday local discourse attempted to hide or to heal. Using fascinating first-hand evidence, David Cressy shows how the making and remaking of ritual formed part of a continuing debate, sometimes strained and occasionally acrimonious, which exposed the raw nerves of society in the midst of great historical events. In doing so, he vividly brings to life the common experiences of living and dying in Tudor and Stuart England.
Download or read book A Postmodern Theology of Ritual Action written by Jonathan L. Best and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2019-02-26 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Postmodern Theology of Ritual Action is a unique work that seeks to explore where we find meaning within ritual and actions within the church. Bridging hermeneutics, philosophy, and postmodern thought, this work seeks to explore how to do theology with the community through conversation. Beginning with the mindset that meaning is already present within ritual action rather than outside it, Best engages the practice of foot washing among the Original Free Will Baptist denomination of eastern North Carolina. Foot washing suggests a new future for theology, a future that models love, service, and acceptance. Incorporating insights gained from conversing with philosophy, theology, and the Original Free Will Baptists, foot washing points toward a future relational practical theology. A Postmodern Theology of Ritual Action is a captivating work that draws from both philosophers and theologians to show that we can learn much by listening to the voices of religious practitioners.
Download or read book Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity written by Roy A. Rappaport and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1999-03-25 with total page 566 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Roy Rappaport argues that religion is central to the continuing evolution of life, although it has been been displaced from its original position of intellectual authority by the rise of modern science. His book, which could be construed as in some degree religious as well as about religion, insists that religion can and must be reconciled with science. Combining adaptive and cognitive approaches to the study of humankind, he mounts a comprehensive analysis of religion's evolutionary significance, seeing it as co-extensive with the invention of language and hence of culture as we know it. At the same time he assembles the fullest study yet of religion's main component, ritual, which constructs the conceptions which we take to be religious and has been central in the making of humanity's adaptation. The text amounts to a manual for effective ritual, illustrated by examples drawn from anthropology, history, philosophy, comparative religion, and elsewhere.
