Ritual and Christian beginnings : a socio-cognitive analysis / Risto Uro.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Uro, Risto, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Liturgies, Early Christian.

Physical Description:

vi, 230 pages ; 23 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2016.

Summary:

The rise of early Christianity has been examined from a myriad of perspectives, but until recently ritual has been a neglected topic. Ritual and Christian Beginnings: A Socio-Cognitive Analysis argues that ritual theory is indispensable for the study of Christian beginnings. It develops a "socio-cognitive" approach to the study of early Christian rituals, seeking to integrate a social-level analysis with findings from the cognitive and evolutionary sciences. Risto Uro provides an overview of how ritual has been approached in previous scholarship, including reasons for its neglect, and introduces the reader to the emerging fields of Ritual Studies and the Cognitive Science of Religion. He explores the ways in which cognitive theories of ritual can shed new light on issues discussed by early Christian scholars, and opens up new questions and avenues for further research. The socio-cognitive approach to ritual is applied to a number of test cases, including John the Baptist, the ritual healing practiced by Jesus and the early Christians, the social life of Pauline Christianity, and the development of early Christian baptismal practices. The analysis creates building blocks for a new account of Christian beginnings, highlighting the role of ritual innovation, cooperative signalling, and the importance of bodily actions for the generation and transmission of religious knowledge. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Ritual Theory and Early Christian Studies 7

2 Ritual, Culture, and the Human Mind: A Socio-cognitive Approach 41

3 'I Baptize You With Water': Ritual and the Rise of Religious Movements 71

4 'Are Any Among You Sick?': Ritual, Possession, and Healing 99

5 'When You Come Together': Ritual and Cooperation 128

6 'Baptizing... and Teaching': Ritual and Religious Knowledge 154.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN:

9780199661176

0199661170

OCLC:

947096912