The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Ritual

Risto Uro is a Senior Lecturer in New Testament Studies and Chair of the BA programme in Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Helsinki. His research covers such areas as the Synoptic Gospels, the Nag Hammadi Library, and the social history of early Christianity. His publications include Ritual and Christian Beginnings: A Socio-Cognitive Analysis (2016) and Explaining Christian Origins and Early Judaism: Contributions from Cognitive and Social Science (co-edited with Petri Luomanen; 2007).Juliette J. Day is Docent and University Lecturer in Church History in the Faculty of Theology, University of Helsinki, and Senior Research Fellow in Early Christian Liturgy at Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford. Her research focusses on early Christian liturgy, especially that of Jerusalem/Palestine in late antiquity, and on the interpretation of ancient and contemporary liturgical texts. Her publications include The Baptismal Liturgy of Jerusalem (2007), Reading the Liturgy (2014), Early Roman Liturgy to 600 (co-edited with Marcus Vinzent; 2014), and A Guide to the Study of Liturgy and Worship (co-edited with Benjamin Gordon-Taylor, 2013).Richard E. DeMaris is Senior Research Professor of New Testament Studies at Valparaiso University and has served as the Catholic Biblical Association Visiting Professor to the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. He is a research associate of the Nordic Project on Ritual and the Emergence of Early Christian Religion and was a staff member of the Ohio State University Excavations at Isthmia, Greece, in the 1990s. His publications on ritual include Early Christian Ritual Life (co-edited with Jason Lamoreaux and Steven Muir 2018), and The New Testament in Its Ritual World (2008).Rikard Roitto is Docent and University Lecturer of Biblical Studies, New Testament, at Stockholm School of Theology. In his research, he integrates historical-critical methods with social, psychological and cognitive sciences to understand early Christian texts and communities. His research interests include social identity, norms, rituals of penance and forgiveness, conflict resolution, and baptism in early Christianity. He has written several articles on ritual practices of reproof, repentance, penance, intercession for forgiveness and reintegration of deviant group members in early Christianity.

This new Oxford Handbook offers a wealth of information regarding early Christian ritual; pastors, teachers, academics and others are bound to find something of use and interest within these pages. ...The handbook is well written and well designed and will be beneficial to a variety of readers. Clergy and educators alike will find helpful and accessible materials for study, whatever their interests--whether sacraments, prayer, music, healing, or parachurch rituals.

• List of Figures and Tables Abbreciations Notes on Contributors PART 1 RITUAL THEORY 1: Risto Uro: Introduction: Ritual in the Study of Early Christianity 2: Barry Stephenson: Ritualization and Ritual Invention 3: Barry Stephenson: Ritual as Action, Performance, and Practice 4: Douglas J. Davies: Ritual, Identity, and Emotion 5: Eva Kundtová Klocová and Armin W. Geertz: Ritual and Embodied Cognition 6: Joseph Bulbulia: Ritual and Cooperation 7: István Czachesz: Ritual and Transmission PART II RITUAL IN THE ANCIENT MEDITERRANEAN WORLD 8: Rubina Raja: Ancient Sanctuaries 9: John S. Kloppenborg: Associations, Guilds, Clubs 10: Fanny Dolansky: Household and Family 11: István Czachesz: Magic 12: Richard S. Ascough: Communal Meals 13: Thomas Kazen: Purification 14: David E. Aune: Prayer 15: Jade B. Weimer: Music 16: Daniel Ullucci: Sacrifice and Votives 17: Laura Feldt: Pilgrimage and Festivals 18: Martti Nissinen: Divination 19: Luter H. Martin: Initiation 20: Anne Katrine de Hemmer Gudme: Mortuary Rituals 21: Anders Klostergaard Petersen: Ritual and Texts PART III RITUAL IN NASCENT CHRISTIANITY 22: Richard E. DeMaris: Water Ritual 23: Vojtech Kase: Meal Practices 24: Rikard Roitto: Rituals of Reintegration 25: Gerd Theissen: Ritual and Healing 26: Christian A. Eberhart: Sacrificial Practice and Language 27: Colleen Shantz: Ritual and Religious Experience 28: Susan E. Hylen: Ritual and Emerging Church Hierarchy 29: Pheme Perkins: Ritual and Orthodoxy PART IV RITUAL IN THE ANCIENT CHURCH 30: Paul F. Bradshaw: Christian Initiation 31: Lizette Larson-Miller: Eucharistic Practices 32: Juliette J. Day: Ritualizing Time 33: L. Edwards Phillips: Early Christian Prayer 34: Robin M. Jensen: Ritual and Early Christian Art 35: Angela Kim harkins and Brian P. Dunkle, SJ: Hymns and Psalmody 36: David G. Hunter: Wedding Rituals and Episcopal Power 37: Juliette J. Day: Women's Rituals and Women's Ritualizing 38: Richard Finn, OP: Fasting as an Ascetic Ritual 39: David L. Eastman: The Cult of Saints 40: Jacob A. latham: Ritual and the Christianization of Urban Space Index