The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Ritual (Oxford Handbooks) 019874787X, 9780198747871

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T h e Ox f o r d H a n d b o o k o f

E A R LY C H R I ST IA N R I T UA L

The Oxford Handbook of

EARLY CHRISTIAN RITUAL Edited by

RISTO URO JULIETTE J. DAY RICHARD E. DEMARIS and

RIKARD ROITTO

1

3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, ox2 6dp, United Kingdom Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries © Oxford University Press 2019 The moral rights of the authors have been asserted First Edition published in 2019 Impression: 1 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Control Number: 2018961235 ISBN 978–​0–​19–​874787–​1 Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and for information only. Oxford disclaims any responsibility for the materials contained in any third party website referenced in this work.

Acknowledgements

This Handbook emerged from a collaboration between a collective research project ‘Ritual and the Emergence of Early Christian Religion’ (REECR; Academy of Finland project #1266452), led by Risto Uro, and two experts in ritual and early Christian studies, Juliette Day and Richard E. DeMaris. Two members of the REECR project, Risto Uro and Rikard Roitto, formed an editorial team with Day and DeMaris, but other members and external advisors supported the Handbook project in a number of ways. The editors would like to thank Nina Nikki for her valuable assistance in technical editing, Anne Katrine Gudme, Vojtěch Kaše, and István Czachesz for their continuous support and feedback at various stages of the project. The REECR external advisors Joseph Bulbulia, Douglas Davies, and Armin W. Geertz also supported the Handbook project during the whole process. We would like to thank Tom Perridge for his advice and encouragement at the beginning of the project as well as other staff and affiliates at Oxford University Press: Karen Raith, Susan Dunsmore, and Sai Sarath Ram. We are grateful to Ellen Valle for editing the English language of three chapters (1, 23, 25). Finally, we would like to thank all our contributors for their willingness to take part in our interdisciplinary enterprise and for their patience in the process of its production. Risto Uro Juliette Day Richard E. DeMaris Rikard Roitto

Contents

List of Figures and Tables Abbreviations Notes on Contributors

xi xiii xxv

PA RT I   R I T UA L T H E ORY 1. Introduction: Ritual in the Study of Early Christianity Risto Uro

3

2. Ritualization and Ritual Invention Barry Stephenson

18

3. Ritual as Action, Performance, and Practice Barry Stephenson

38

4. Ritual, Identity, and Emotion Douglas J. Davies

55

5. Ritual and Embodied Cognition Eva Kundtová Klocová and Armin W. Geertz

74

6. Ritual and Cooperation Joseph Bulbulia

95

7. Ritual and Transmission István Czachesz

115

PA RT I I   R I T UA L I N T H E A N C I E N T M E DI T E R R A N E A N WOR L D 8. Ancient Sanctuaries Rubina Raja

137

viii   Contents

9. Associations, Guilds, Clubs John S. Kloppenborg

154

10. Household and Family Fanny Dolansky

171

11. Magic István Czachesz

187

12. Communal Meals Richard S. Ascough

204

13. Purification Thomas Kazen

220

14. Prayer David E. Aune

245

15. Music Jade B. Weimer

265

16. Sacrifice and Votives Daniel Ullucci

282

17. Pilgrimage and Festivals Laura Feldt

302

18. Divination Martti Nissinen

319

19. Initiation Luther H. Martin

334

20. Mortuary Rituals Anne Katrine de Hemmer Gudme

353

21. Ritual and Texts Anders Klostergaard Petersen

370

PA RT I I I   R I T UA L I N NA S C E N T C H R I S T IA N I T Y 22. Water Ritual Richard E. DeMaris

391

Contents   ix

23. Meal Practices Vojtěch Kaše

409

24. Rituals of Reintegration Rikard Roitto

426

25. Ritual and Healing Gerd Theissen

444

26. Sacrificial Practice and Language Christian A. Eberhart

462

27. Ritual and Religious Experience Colleen Shantz

477

28. Ritual and Emerging Church Hierarchy Susan E. Hylen

491

29. Ritual and Orthodoxy Pheme Perkins

503

PA RT I V   R I T UA L I N T H E A N C I E N T C H U RC H 30. Christian Initiation Paul F. Bradshaw

523

31. Eucharistic Practices Lizette Larson-​Miller

538

32. Ritualizing Time Juliette J. Day

554

33. Early Christian Prayer L. Edward Phillips

570

34. Ritual and Early Christian Art Robin M. Jensen

587

35. Hymns and Psalmody Angela Kim Harkins and Brian P. Dunkle, SJ

610

36. Wedding Rituals and Episcopal Power David G. Hunter

627

x   Contents

37. Women’s Rituals and Women’s Ritualizing Juliette J. Day

644

38. Fasting as an Ascetic Ritual Richard Finn, OP

661

39. The Cult of Saints David L. Eastman

676

40. Ritual and the Christianization of Urban Space Jacob A. Latham

684

Index

703

Figures and Tables

Figures 8.1 View of one of the monumental altars in front the Jupiter Heliopolitanus temple in Baalbek, Lebanon

139

8.2 View of the stepped pools at Birketein outside of ancient Gerasa

142

8.3 Detail of the Mithraeum at Hawarte, Syria

144

33.1 A two-​dimensional typology of prayer

571

34.1 Praying figure from the Catacomb of Callixtus, third century

589

34.2 Christian sarcophagus from the Basilica of Santa Maria Antiqua, c.290 590 34.3 Catacomb of Priscilla, chamber of so-​called Donna Velata, late third century

591

34.4 Meal scene, from Catacomb of Callixtus, late third century

593

34.5 Banquet scene from Catacomb of Priscilla, third century, Cappella Graeca 594 34.6. Hypogeum of Vibia, fourth century

595

34.7 Baptism scene

596

34.8 Dura-​Europos Christian baptistery, c.240 598 34.9 Hospitality of Abraham and Offering of Isaac, lunette mosaic, from San Vitale, Ravenna

602

34.10 Abel and Melchizedek lunette mosaic from San Vitale, Ravenna

603

34.11 Justinian mosaic San Vitale, Ravenna, mid-​sixth century

604

34.12 Theodora mosaic San Vitale, Ravenna

605

Tables 7.1 Whitehouse’s modes of religiosity

118

25.1 The four forms of the dissociative soul

445

33.1 Jewish systems of daily prayer in the first century ce 575

Abbreviations

Periodicals, Collections, and Reference Works AE

L’Année épigraphique. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1888–​.

AGRW

Ascough, Richard S., Philip A.  Harland, and John S.  Kloppenborg. Associations in the Greco-​Roman World: A Sourcebook. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2012.

ANF

Ante-​Nicene Fathers Series.

CIL

Corpus inscriptionum latinarum. Consilio et auctoritate Academiae Litterarum Regiae Borussicae editum. Berlin: Georg Reimer, 1862–​.

CSEL

Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum.

FC

Fathers of the Church Series.

GRA I

Kloppenborg, John S. and Richard S.  Ascough. Greco-​Roman Associations:  Texts, Translations, and Commentary. Vol. I.  Attica, Central Greece, Macedonia, Thrace. Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde der älteren Kirche 181. Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2011.

GRA II

Harland, Philip A.  Greco-​Roman Associations:  Texts, Translations, and Commentary. Vol. II. North Coast of the Black Sea, Asia Minor. Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde der älteren Kirche 204. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2014.

IApamBith Corsten, Thomas. Die Inschriften von Apameia (Bithynien) und Pylai. Inschriften griechischer Städte aus Kleinasien 32. Bonn:  Rudolf Habelt, 1987. ID

Durrbach, Félix, Pierre Roussel, Marcel Launey, André Plassart, and Jacques Coupry. Inscriptions de Délos. 7 vols. Paris: Librairie Ancienne Honoré Champion, 1926–​1973.

IDelta

Bernand, A., ed. Le delta égyptien d’après les texts grecs, 1:  Les confines libyques. 3 vols. Mémoires publies par les membres de l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale du Caire 91. Cairo: Institut français d’archéologie orientale, 1970.

IG II2

Kirchner, Johannes, ed. Inscriptiones Atticae Euclidis anno anteriores. 4 vols. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1913–​1940.

xiv   Abbreviations IG IV2, 1

Hiller von Gaertringen, Friedrich, ed. Inscriptiones Graecae. Vol. 4:  Inscriptiones Argolidis. 2nd edition. Fasc. 1:  Inscriptiones Epidauri. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1929.

IG X/​2.1

Edson, Charles, ed. Inscriptiones graecae Epiri, Macedoniae, Thraciae, Scythiae. II: Inscriptiones Macedoniae, Fasc. 1: Inscriptiones Thessalonicae et viciniae. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1972.

IGLSkythia Pippidi, D.  M. and Iorgu Stoian, eds. Inscriptiones Scythiae Minoris graecae et latinae. Inscripţiile din Scythia Minor grecesţi şi latine. Bucharest: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste Romania, 1983–​. I: Inscriptiones Histriae et vicinia (1983); II: Tomis et territorium (1987); III: Callatis et territorium (2000). IGRR

Cagnat, Rene L., J. F. Toutain, V. Henry, and G. L. Lafaye, eds. Inscriptiones graecae ad res romanas pertinentes. 4 vols. Paris: E. Leroux, 1911–​1927.

IGUR

Moretti, L.  Inscriptiones graecae Urbis romae. 4  vols. Studi pubblicati dall’Istituto per la Storia Antica 17, 22, 28, 47. Rome: Istituto Italiano per la Storia Antica, 1968.

ILLPRON

Hainzmann, Manfredus and Peter Schubert. Inscriptionum lapidariarum latinarum provinciae Norici usque ad annum MCMLXXXIV repertarum indices. 2 vols. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1986–​1987.

LCL

Loeb Classical Library.

LIMC

Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae.

LKU

Falkenstein, A. Literarische Keilschrifttexte aus Uruk. Berlin: Staatliche Museen, 1931.

LSS

Doran, Robert, and Susan Ashbrook Harvey. 1992. The Lives of Simeon Stylites. Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications.

NHC

Nag Hammadi Codices.

NPNF1

Nicene and Post-​Nicene Fathers, Series 1.

NPNF2

Nicene and Post-​Nicene Fathers Series 2.

NRSV

New Revised Standard Version

PCairoDem Spiegelberg, W., ed. Die demotischen Denkmäler. II. Die Demotischen Papyrus. Leipzig: Dragulin, 1908. PG

Patrologia Graeca, ed. J.‐P. Migne.

PGM

Papyri Graecae Magicae:  Die griechischen Zauberpapyri. Edited by Karl Preisendanz. Revised by Albert Henrichs. 2 volumes. Stuttgart: B. G. Teubner, 1973–​1974.

PL

Patrologia Latina, ed. J.‐P. Migne.

PLond VII

Skeat, T.  C., ed. Greek Papyri in the British Museum VII. The Zenon Archive. London: British Museum, 1974.

PMich

Boak, A. E. R. Papyri from Tebtunis (Michigan papyri II and V). 2 vols. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1933–​1944.

Abbreviations   xv RSV

Revised Standard Version.

SAA

State Archives of Assyria.

SC

Sources chrétiennes. Paris: Cerf, 1943–.

SEG

Supplementum epigraphicum graecum. Leiden: Brill, 1923–​.

3

SIG

Dittenberger, Wilhelm. Sylloge inscriptionum graecarum, 3rd edn, 4 vols. Leipzig: S. Hirzel, 1915–1924.

TAM V

Herrmann, Peter. Tituli Lydiae linguis graeca et latina conscripti. Tituli Asiae Minoris, vol. 5/​ 1–​ 2. 2  vols. Vienna:  Academia Scientiarum Austriaca, 1981.

TRE

Theologische Realenzyklopädie. Edited by Gerhard Krause and Gerhard Müller. Berlin: de Gruyter, 1977–​.

Ancient sources Aeschylus Ag. Cho. Eum. Pers.

Agamemnon Choephori Eumenides Persae

Ambrose of Milan Ep. Sacr. Virg.

Epistulae De Sacramentis De virginibus

Ambrosiaster Quaest.

Quaestiones veteris et novi testamenti

Anonymous Acts Paul Acts of Paul Acts Thomas Acts of Thomas AL The Armenian Lectionary (Arab.) Inf. Gos. Arabic Gospel of the Infancy Barn. Epistula Barnabi Can. Hipp. Canones Hippolyti Const. ap. Constitutiones apostolorum Cod. theod. Codex theodosianus Did. Didache Did. apost. Didascalia apostolorum Gos. Mary Gospel of Mary Mart. Pol. Martyrdom of Polycarp Morb. Sacr. De Morbo Sacro

xvi   Abbreviations Prot. Jas. Test. Dom. Trad. ap. Vend.

Protevangelium of James Testamentum Domini Traditio apostolica Vendidād

Appian Bel.

Bella civilia

Apuleius Apol. Metam.

Apologia Metamorphoses

Aristeas Let. Aris.

Letter of Aristeas

Aristophanes Plut. Thesm.

Plutus Thesmophoriazusae

Aristotle Ath. pol. Eth. nic. Pol.

Constitution of Athens Ethica nicomachea Politica

Arrian An.

Anabasis

Athanasius of Alexandria C. Ar. Ep. Marcell. Syn.

Orationes contra Arianos Epistula ad Marcellinum de interpretatione De synodis

Athenaeus Deipn.

Deipnosophistae

Athenagoras Leg.

Legatio pro Christianis

Augustine of Hippo Civ. Conf. Enarrat. Ps.

De civitate Dei Confessiones Enarrationes in Psalmo

Aulus Gellius Noct. att.

Noctes atticae

Abbreviations   xvii Basil of Caesarea Spir.

De spiritu sancto

Basil of Seleucia Mirac. Theclae

Miraculae Theclae

Cato Agr.

De agricultura

Cicero Att. Div. Dom. Fin. Leg. Off. Pis. Sest.

Epistulae ad Atticum De divinatione De domo suo De finibus De legibus De officiis In Pisonem Pro Sestio

Clement of Alexandria Exc. Paed. Strom.

Excerpta ex Theodoto Paedagogus Stromateis

Columella Rust.

De re rustica

Constantine Porphyrogennetos Cer.

The Book of Ceremonies

Cyprian of Carthage Dom. or. Don. Ep. Hab. Virg. Laps. Unit. eccl.

De dominica oratione Ad Donatum Epistolae De habitu virginum De Lapsis De catholicae ecclesiae unitate

Cyril of Jerusalem Catech. Procatech.

Catecheses ad illuminandos Procatechesis

Cyril/​John of Jerusalem Catech. myst.

Catecheses mystagogiae

xviii   Abbreviations Damasus of Rome ED

Epigrammata

Dionysius of Halicarnassus Ant. rom.

Antiquitates romanae

Egeria It. Eg.

Itinerarium

Epictetus Ench.

Enchiridion

Epiphanius of Salamis Pan. or Haer.

Panarion (Adversus haereses)

Euripides Bacch. El. Hel. Heracl. Hip.

Bacchae Electra Helena Heraclidae Hippolytus

Eusebius of Caesarea Hist. eccl. Vit. Const.

Historia ecclesiastica Vita Constantini

Gerontius Vit. Mel.

Vita s. Melaniae Iunioris

Gregory of Nazianzus C. Jul. Ep.

Contra Julianum Epistulae

Gregory of Nyssa Vit. Mac.

Vita s. Macrinae

Gregory of Tours Vit. Mart.

Vita s. Martini

Hermas Mand. Mandates Sim. Similitude(s) Vis. Vision(s)

Abbreviations   xix Herodotus Hist.

Historiae

Hippocrates Morb. sacr.

The Sacred Disease

Hippolytus Haer.

Refutatio omnium haeresium

Homer Il. Od.

Iliad Odyssey

Horace Carm. Ep.

Carmina Epistulae

Iamblichus Myst. VP

On the Mysteries The Life of Pythagoras

Ignatius of Antioch Ign. Eph. Ign. Magn. Ign. Phil. Ign. Pol. Ign. Rom. Ign. Smyrn. Ign. Trall.

To the Ephesians To the Magnesians To the Philadelphians To Polycarp To the Romans To the Smyrnians To the Trallians

Irenaeus of Lyon Haer.

Adversus Haereses

Jerome Comm. Ezech. Epist.

Commentariorum in Ezechielem Epistulae

John Chrysostom Adv. Jud. Bab. Catech. Exp. Ps. Hom. Act. Hom. Gen.

Adversus Judaeos De sancto hieromartyre Babyla Catecheses Expositiones in Psalmos Homiliae in Acta apostolorum Homiliae in Genesim

xx   Abbreviations Hom. Rom Mart. Philog. Stat. Stud. praes.

In epistolam ad Romanos homiliae Homilia in martyres De beato Philogonio Ad populum Antiochenum de statuis De studio praesentium

Josephus Ant. J.W.

Antiquitates Judaicae Jewish War

Justin Martyr Apol. Dial.

Apologia Dialogus cum Tryphone

Lucian Alex. Philops. Salt. Symp. Ver. hist.

Alexander Philopseudes De saltatione Symposium Vera historia

Macrobius Sat.

Saturnalia

Mark the Deacon Vit. Porph.

Vita Porphyrii

Martial Epig.

Epigrammata

Minucius Felix Oct.

Octavius

Mishnah (m.) Ber. Berakot Hag. Hagigah Ket. Ketubbot Meg. Megillah Mo’ed Qat. Mo’ed Qatan Pesah. Pesahim Ta’an. Ta’anit Nag Hammadi codices Treat. Res. Gos. Phil.

I 4 Treatise on the Resurrection II 3 Gospel of Philip

Abbreviations   xxi 1 Apoc. Jas. Interp. Know.

V 3 (First) Revelation of James XI 1 Interpretation of Knowledge

Novatian Spect.

De spectaculis

Optatus of Milevis Adv. Donat.

Against the Donatists

Origen Cels. Or. Sel. Ezech.

Contra Celsum De oratione (Peri proseuchēs) Selecta in Ezechielem

Ovid Fast. Trist.

Fasti Tristia

Paulinus of Milan Vit. Ambr.

Vita Ambrosii

Paulinus of Nola Car. Ep.

Carmina Epistolae

Pausanias Descr.

Graeciae descriptio

Petronius Sat.

Satyricon

Philo Contempl.

De vita contemplativa

Pindar Olymp.

Olympionikai

Plato Crat. Leg. Resp. Theat.

Cratylus Leges Res publica Theaetetus

Plautus Rud.

Rudens

xxii   Abbreviations Pliny Hist. Nat.

Naturalis Historia

Pliny the Younger Ep. Ep. Tra.

Epistulae Epistulae ad Trajanum

Plutarch Alex. fort. Ant. Arist. Cupid. divit. Is. Os. Mor. Mus. Num. Quaest. conv. Quaest. rom.

De Alexandri magni fortuna aut virtute Antonius Aristides De cupiditate divitiarum De Iside et Osiride Moralia De musica Numa Quaestionum convivialum libri IX Quaestiones romanae et graecae

Porphyry De ant.

De antro nympharum

Possidius of Calama Vit. Aug.

Vita s. Augustinii

Prudentius Perist.

Peristephanon

Pseudo-​Athanasius Virg.

De virginitate

Seneca Ben. Ep.

De beneficiis Epistulae morales

Siricius Ep.

Epistulae

Socrates Scholasticus Hist. Eccl.

Historia ecclesiastica

Sophocles Phil. Trach.

Philoctetes Trachiniae

Abbreviations   xxiii Stobaeus Flor.

Florilegium

Suetonius Aug. Vesp.

Divus Augustus Vespasianus

Tacitus Hist.

Historiae

Tertullian An. Apol. Bapt. Cor. Haer. Idol. Jejun. Mart. Mon. Or. Paen. Prax. Pud. Res. Spect. Ux. Virg.

De anima Apologeticus De baptismo De corona militis De praescriptione haereticorum De idololatria De jejunio adversus psychicos Ad martyras De monogamia De oratione De Paenitentia Adversus Praxean De Pudicitia De resurrectione carnis De spectaculis Ad uxorem De virginibus velandis

Themistius in Stobaeus Flor.

Florilegium

Theodoret of Cyrrhus Hist. eccl. Hist. Rel.

Historia ecclesiastica Historia religiosa

Varro Ling. Rust.

De lingua latina De re rustica

Vergil Aen. Georg.

Aeneid Georgica

xxiv   Abbreviations Xenophon Ages. Anab. Eph. Mem.

Agesilaus Anabasis Ephesiaca Memorabilia

Zoroastrian Vend.

Vendidād

Notes on Contributors

Richard S. Ascough is Professor in the School of Religion at Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Religious Studies. His research focuses on the history of early Christianity and Greco-​Roman religious culture with particular attention to various types of associations. He has published numerous articles and book chapters and ten books, including Associations in the Greco-​ Roman World (written with John Kloppenborg and Philip Harland, 2012) and 1 and 2 Thessalonians: Encountering the Christ Group at Thessalonike (2014). David E. Aune is Walter Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins emeritus in the Department of Theology at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA. His research has focused on the Graeco-​Roman context of the New Testament and early Christianity. His publications include Prophecy in Early Christianity and the Ancient Mediterranean World (1983); The New Testament in Its Literary Environment (1987); The Westminster Dictionary of New Testament and Early Christian Literature and Rhetoric (2003); and Apocalypticism, Prophecy, and Magic in Early Christianity (2006). Paul F. Bradshaw, an Anglican priest, is Emeritus Professor of Liturgy at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA. The author or editor of more than twenty books on the subject of Christian worship and of over 120 essays or articles in periodicals, he is a former president of both the North American Academy of Liturgy and the international Societas Liturgica, and was also editor-in-chief of the journal Studia Liturgica from 1987 to 2005. Joseph Bulbulia is McClauren Goodfellow Professor in Theological and Religious Studies at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. His research applies quantitative methods and evolutionary theory to understand how religion affects people and what it does in our societies. Since 2014, Bulbulia has served as co-​editor of Religion, Brain & Behaviour. He is one of three curators of the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study, a 20-​year national longitudinal study of beliefs and values that is following over 18,000 New Zealanders. He is also an investigator for Pulotu, a free and open database of 116 Pacific cultures purpose-​built to investigate the evolutionary dynamics of religion. István Czachesz is Professor of Biblical Studies at the University of Tromsø in Norway. His research concentrates on the New Testament, Early Christian literature, and the Cognitive Science of Religion. He is co-​chair of the Mind, Society and Religion: Cognitive Science Approaches to the Biblical World seminar of the Society of Biblical Literature, co-​editor of the Studies on Early Christian Apocrypha Series, and book review editor for

xxvi   Notes on Contributors the Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion. His books include Cognitive Science and the New Testament: A New Approach to Early Christian Research (2017), The Grotesque Body in Early Christian Discourse (2012), and Mind, Morality and Magic:  Cognitive Science Approaches in Biblical Studies (edited with Risto Uro, 2013). Douglas J. Davies is Professor in the Study of Religion and Director of The Centre of Death and Life Studies at Durham University, UK, trained in both social anthropology and theology. He is known internationally not only as a death-​studies scholar, with work on traditional and woodland-​ecological forms of burial and on cremation, but also for monographs on Mormonism. He has also worked on Anglicanism, on the interplay of anthropology and theology, and on the theology of death, most recently publishing Mors Britannica: Lifestyle and Death-​style in Britain Today (OUP 2015). He is Oxford Doctor of Letters, Honorary Doctor of Theology in Uppsala, and Fellow of The Learned Society of Wales, of The Academy of Social Sciences, and of The British Academy. Juliette J. Day is Docent and University Lecturer in Church History in the Faculty of Theology, University of Helsinki, Finland, and Senior Research Fellow in Early Christian Liturgy at Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford, UK. Her research focuses on early Christian liturgy, especially that of Jerusalem/​Palestine in late antiquity, and on the interpretation of ancient and contemporary liturgical texts. Significant publications include: The Baptismal Liturgy of Jerusalem (2007); Reading the Liturgy (2014), Early Roman Liturgy to 600 (edited with Marcus Vinzent, 2014) and A Guide to the Study of Liturgy and Worship (edited with Benjamin Gordon-​Taylor, 2013). Richard E. DeMaris is Senior Research Professor of New Testament Studies at Valparaiso University, USA, 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 (edited with Jason Lamoreaux and Steven Muir, 2018), and The New Testament in Its Ritual World (2008). Fanny Dolansky is Associate Professor of Classics at Brock University in St Catharines, Ontario, Canada, where she teaches Latin and Roman history. Her research primarily concerns the Roman family and its religious practices and the history of Roman childhood. She has published articles and chapters on several Roman domestic rituals and festivals, as well as on education, children’s toys and play, and a study of sexual violence in the second book of Ovid’s Fasti. Brian P. Dunkle, SJ, is Assistant Professor at the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry, USA. He studies the history and theological literature of early Christianity and has translated the poetry of Gregory of Nazianzus (St. Vladimir’s, 2013) and sermons of Ambrose of Milan (Catholic University of America, forthcoming). He is author of Enchantment and Creed in the Hymns of Ambrose of Milan (2016).

Notes on Contributors    xxvii David L. Eastman is Associate Professor of Religion at Ohio Wesleyan University, USA. He studies the development of Christianity within its broader social historical context, with a particular interest in the reception and reimagination of the lives of the apostles, martyrdom, and the cult of the saints. He is the author of two books, Paul the Martyr: The Cult of the Apostle in the Latin West (2011) and The Ancient Martyrdom Accounts of Peter and Paul (2015). He is also a contributor to the Society of Biblical Literature’s Bible Odyssey website, serves as the Book Review Editor for the Journal of Early Christian Studies, and is co-​editor of the Inventing Christianity book series. Christian A. Eberhart is Professor and Program Director of Religious Studies at the University of Houston, Texas, USA, and Chair of the Department of Comparative Cultural Studies. He graduated from Harvard University and has a doctorate in Hebrew Bible studies from the University of Heidelberg, as well as a Habilitation (second doctorate) in Early Christian literature from the University of Mainz. Eberhart is the founder and former chair of the Annual Conference Section ‘Sacrifice, Cult, and Atonement’ for the Society of Biblical Literature and the co-​founder and co-​convener of the ‘Hebrews’ research group for the Society of New Testament Studies. Laura Feldt is Associate Professor of the Study of Religion with the Department of History, University of Southern Denmark, Odense. She has authored The Fantastic in Religious Narrative from Exodus to Elisha (2012) and edited Wilderness in Mythology and Religion: Approaching Religious Spatialities, Cosmologies, and Ideas of Wild Nature (2012)  and other volumes. She has published on ancient literary myths, rituals, and monsters, from ancient Mesopotamia, the Hebrew Bible, and early Christianity. Richard Finn, OP is a member of the Faculties of Theology and Classics, University of Oxford, UK, a Fellow of Blackfriars Hall, and Director of the Las Casas Institute for Social Justice. Armin W. Geertz is Professor in the History of Religions at the Department for the Study of Religion, and former Jens Christian Schou Senior Fellow at Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies, Aarhus University, Denmark. He is co-​founder of the Religion, Cognition and Culture Research Unit at Aarhus. His main interests are the religions of indigenous peoples, especially North American Indians, cognitive theory in the study of religion, the neurobiology of religion, extreme religiosity, evolutionary theories of religion, and method and theory in comparative religions. Recent publications include The Emergence and Evolution of Religion: By Means of Natural Selection (written with J. H. Turner, A. Maryanski, and A. K. Petersen, 2017). He is senior editor of Advances in the Cognitive Science of Religion series, and senior editor of Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion. Anne Katrine de Hemmer Gudme is Professor (with special responsibilities) of Hebrew Bible Studies at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. She has published several articles on ritual texts, practices and inscriptions in the Ancient Mediterranean and is the

xxviii   Notes on Contributors author of Before the God in this Place for Good Remembrance: A Comparative Analysis of the Aramaic Votive Inscriptions from Mount Gerizim (2013). Angela Kim Harkins is Associate Professor of New Testament at the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry, USA. She was a Marie Curie International Incoming Fellow in the Department of Theology and Religion at the University of Birmingham, England (2014–2016), funded by the European Commission to undertake research on the Dead Sea Scrolls and Religious Experience. Harkins is the author of Reading with an “I” to the Heavens: Looking at the Qumran Hodayot through the Lens of Visionary Traditions (2012), and numerous articles and essays. Her research focuses on Second Temple and early Christian prayers and religious experience. David G. Hunter holds the Cottrill-​Rolfes Chair of Catholic Studies at the University of Kentucky, USA. He has published extensively in the field of early Christian studies, most notably on authors such as Augustine, Jerome, Ambrose, and Ambrosiaster. He is editor of the Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Studies (edited with Susan Ashbrook Harvey, 2008)  and author of Marriage, Celibacy, and Heresy in Ancient Christianity (2007), Hunter also serves as Editorial Director of the translation series, The Fathers of the Church, published by The Catholic University of America Press, and is on the advisory board of numerous journals and book series. Susan E. Hylen is Associate Professor of New Testament at the Candler School of Theology of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. She studies the social history of the Roman period and its effects on church practices pertaining to the leadership of women. She is the author of five books, including A Modest Apostle: Thecla and the History of Women in the Early Church (2015) and Women in the New Testament World (forthcoming). Robin M. Jensen is the Patrick O’Brien Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA. Her teaching and research explore the intersections among Christian theology, liturgical practice, and material/​visual culture. Significant publications include The Cross: History, Art, and Controversy (2017); Christianity in Roman Africa: The Development of its Practices and Beliefs (written with J. Patout Burns. 2014), and Living Water: The Art and Architecture of Ancient Christian Baptism (2011). Vojtěch Kaše works as a teaching and research assistant in digital humanities at the Department of Philosophy, University of West Bohemia, the Czech Republic. He is concluding his doctoral studies under a cotutelle agreement between the University of Helsinki, Finland, and Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic. In Helsinki, he worked for the research project sponsored by the Academy of Finland and directed by Dr Risto Uro, entitled ‘Ritual and the Emergence of Early Christian Religion: A Socio-​ Cognitive Analysis’ (2013–​2017). In Brno, he participates in the interdisciplinary research project GEHIR: Generative Historiography of Religion (2015–​2018). His doctoral thesis applies cognitive theories of ritual to certain aspects of the development of early Christian meal practices.

Notes on Contributors    xxix Thomas Kazen is Professor of Biblical Studies at Stockholm School of Theology, Sweden. His research interests cover purity/​impurity conceptions, the historical Jesus, and various ritual and apocalyptic issues. He attempts to integrate evolutionary, cognitive, and bio-​psychological perspectives. Kazen is the author of numerous articles and books, including Jesus and Purity Halakhah (2002, corrected reprint 2010), Issues of Impurity in Early Judaism (2010), Emotions in Biblical Law (2011), and Scripture, Interpretation, or Authority? (2013). Eva Kundtová Klocová is Research Fellow at LEVYNA Laboratory for Experimental Research of Religion, Masaryk University, the Czech Republic, where she conducts both lab and field experiments and collaborates on cross-​cultural and interdisciplinary research projects. Her main interests are embodiment theories of ritual; theories of ritual communication; evolutionary theories of religion; the methodology of experimental research in humanities and social sciences; and cognitive theory in the study of religion. She directs research at the HUME Lab Laboratory for Experimental Humanities at Masaryk University. John S. Kloppenborg is Professor and Chair of the Department for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. His recent publications include Synoptic Problems: Collected Essays (2014), Attica, Central Greece, Macedonia, Thrace. Vol. 1 of Greco-​Roman Associations:  Texts, Translations, and Commentary (written with Richard S. Ascough, 2011), Q, The Earliest Gospel: An Introduction to the Original Sayings and Stories of Jesus (2008), The Tenants in the Vineyard:  Ideology, Economics, and Agrarian Conflict in Jewish Palestine (2006), Excavating Q:  The History and Setting of the Sayings Gospel (2000); and The Critical Edition of Q (written with James M. Robinson and Paul Hoffmann, 2000). Lizette Larson-​Miller is Huron-​Lawson Professor at Huron University College of the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada. In addition to teaching in the areas of liturgical studies, history, and sacramental theology, she serves as the liturgical officer for the diocese of Huron, as chair of the International Anglican Liturgical Consultation, and as a member of several editorial boards in the field of liturgical publishing. Her most recent book is Sacramentality Renewed (2016). Jacob A. Latham is Associate Professor of History at the University of Tennessee, USA. His first book is Performance, Memory, and Processions in Ancient Rome (2016). Luther H. Martin is Professor Emeritus of Religion, University of Vermont and has been a Visiting Professor at Masaryk University, Brno, the Czech Republic. He is the author of The Mind of Mithraists (2015). He has also published widely in the area of cognitive theory and historiographical method, e.g. Deep History, Secular Theory (2014) and Past Minds: Studies in Cognitive Historiography (edited with Jesper Sørensen, 2011). A founder of the North American Association for the Study of Religion, he is now a member of the Honorary Board of its journal, Method & Theory in the Study of Religion. He is also a founding member of the International Association for the Cognitive

xxx   Notes on Contributors Science of Religion and is co-​Chair of the International Advisory Board of its Journal of the Cognitive Science of Religion, and a founding editor of the Journal of Cognitive Historiography. Martti Nissinen is Professor of Old Testament Studies at the University of Helsinki, Finland. He is an expert on prophetic phenomena in the ancient Eastern Mediterranean, and his research interests include also gender issues (love poetry, homoeroticism, masculinity) in the Ancient Eastern Mediterranean. His books include Ancient Prophecy: Near Eastern, Biblical, and Greek Perspectives (in press), Prophets and Prophecy in the Ancient Near East (2003), Homoeroticism in the Biblical World: A Historical Perspective (1998), and References to Prophecy in Neo-​Assyrian Sources (1998). He has edited several volumes and published a significant number of articles on topics related to prophecy, gender, and the history of ancient Near Eastern religion. Pheme Perkins is Joseph Professor of Catholic Spirituality in the Theology Department of Boston College, USA, and an Associate Editor of the New Oxford Annotated Bible. Her research involves Johannine literature, New Testament theology, Gnosticism and the development of Christian theology in the second and third centuries. She is the author of many books and articles including Gnosticism and the New Testament (1993), Introduction to the Synoptic Gospels (2007), and 1 Corinthians (2012). She is a past president of the Catholic Biblical Association of America and chair of its executive board. Anders Klostergaard Petersen is Professor for the Study of Religion at Aarhus University, Denmark. He is author and co-​editor of several books as well as a large number of book chapters, articles, reviews, etc. on late Second Temple Judaism, Graeco-​ Roman religion and philosophy, early Christ-​religion, and basic matters pertaining to method, theory, and philosophy of science with respect to historical studies. He has worked extensively with ritual theory mostly from Durkheimian, Rappaportian, semiotic and cognitive scientific perspectives. He is currently focusing on fundamental questions pertaining to biocultural evolution. Among his most recent and forthcoming publications are Ancient Philosophy and Religion:  Religio-​ Philosophical Discourses Within the Greco-​Roman, Jewish and Early Christian World (edited with George van Kooten, 2016), Contextualizing Rewritten Scripture:  Wrestling with Authority (edited with Lieke Wijnia, 2017) and Divination and Magic and Their Interactions (edited with Jesper Sørensen, 2017). L. Edward Phillips is Associate Professor of Worship and Liturgical Theology at Candler School of Theology, USA, and Coordinator of the Initiative in Religious Practices and Practical Theology for the Graduate Division of Religion, Laney Graduate School, at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Rubina Raja is Professor of Classical Archaeology at Aarhus University, Denmark, and Director of the Danish National Research Foundation’s Centre of Excellence Centre for Urban Network Evolutions. She also heads the Palmyra Portrait Project. Her research interests include ancient religion, iconography and portraiture, as well as urban

Notes on Contributors    xxxi development of the ancient world and history of research. She has published extensively on urban development and the archaeology of Roman religion, including the 2012 monograph Urban Development and Regional Identity in the Eastern Roman Provinces as well as the volume The Archaeology of Religion in the Ancient World (edited with Jörg Rüpke, 2015). She is also an active field archaeologist and co-​directs an international excavation project in ancient Gerasa in Jordan. Rikard Roitto is Docent and University Lecturer of Biblical Studies, New Testament, at Stockholm School of Theology, Sweden. 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. Colleen Shantz is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Theology of St. Michael’s College and is cross-​appointed to the Department for the Study of Religion, both in the University of Toronto, Canada. She researches aspects of experience in early Christianity (emotion, ritual, and religious experience), using both neurological and psychological studies to help to illuminate their functioning. She is co-​editor of the Experientia volumes for the Society of Biblical Literature, which explore aspects of religious experience in early Judaism and Christianity. Barry Stephenson is Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies, Memorial University, Canada. His research deals with religion and the arts, lived religion, and ritual studies. His publications include Ritual:  A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2015), Performing the Reformation: Public Ritual in the City of Luther (Oxford University Press, 2010), Veneration and Revolt: Hermann Hesse and Swabian Pietism (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2009), and numerous book chapters and journal articles. He is the co-​editor of the Oxford Ritual Studies Series. Gerd Theissen is Professor Emeritus of New Testament Theology at the University of Heidelberg, Germany. He did his habilitation on early Christian miracle stories (1972), and has worked as an assistant at the University of Göttingen (1968–​1969) and the University of Bonn (1969–​1972), as a secondary school teacher (1975–​1978), and Professor of New Testament Studies at the University of Copenhagen (1978–​1980). His main research interests lie in the historical Jesus and the sociology, psychology, and theory of Early Christianity. Daniel Ullucci is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Rhodes College, USA. He works on the development of early Christianity and the interaction between early Christian groups and traditional Mediterranean religions. His past work examined the ritual of animal sacrifice and the process by which some early Christian groups came to reject this practice (The Christian Rejection of Animal Sacrifice, 2012). He has also written on sacrifice for Currents in Biblical Research. His current project draws on

xxxii   Notes on Contributors cognitive theory and network theory to redescribe the Christian discourse on ‘spiritual’ sacrifice in relationship to monetary giving by Roman elites. Risto Uro is Senior Lecturer in New Testament Studies and chair of the BA programme in theology and religious studies at the University of Helsinki, Finland. He is Life Member of Clare Hall College, University of Cambridge. His research covers such areas as the Synoptic Gospels, the Nag Hammadi Library, and the social history of early Christianity. More recently, Uro has pioneered the development of ritual approaches to biblical studies. His particular interest is in cognitive theories of ritual. He led an international research project entitled ‘Ritual and the Emergence of Early Christian Religion:  A Socio-​Cognitive Analysis’ (2013–​2017). His most recent monograph is Ritual and Christian Beginnings: A Socio-​Cognitive Analysis (2016). Jade B. Weimer holds a PhD from the Department for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto, Canada. Her work examines the role of musical ritual in formulations of early Christian religious identities and explores the ways in which early Christian writers used musical practice as a means to demarcate the purported boundaries of orthodoxy and heresy. She is currently preparing her doctoral thesis for publication and teaching courses in religion as an adjunct faculty member at both the University of Manitoba and the University of Winnipeg.

PA RT   I

R I T UA L   T H E ORY

chapter 1

introduction Ritual in the study of early Christianity Risto Uro

Introduction Since the first decade of the present century, an increasing number of scholars have been attracted by the use of ‘ritual’ as a conceptual and theoretical tool for the study of the history and cultural world of early Christianity. The roots of this growing interest can be traced back to the History of Religion School in biblical studies, the influence of social-​scientific theory, especially social-​cultural anthropology, and the increased openness of historians of early liturgy to ritual theory (Uro 2016: 7–​22). Yet the most important reason for the growth of research on ritual in the study of early Christianity has probably been the emergence of ritual studies as a named and recognized field (Grimes 1995; 2014; Bell 1997; 2005; Post 2015; Stephenson 2015; see also Uro 2016: 23–​6). The work of pioneering scholars, such as Ronald Grimes and Catherine Bell, and collective projects, such as the Heidelberg Ritualdynamik Research Centre (active from 2002 to 2013; see Kreinath et al. 2008b), towards the systematizing and development of knowledge and theories of ritual have been exerting an influence over many fields and disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, including the study of early Christianity. In religious studies, the cognitive movement (dubbed since the early years of the new century the ‘cognitive science of religion’) has advanced a number of new theories of ritual, contributing to the surge of studies on ritual in various fields dealing with religion and culture (for cognitive theories of ritual, see Xygalatas 2013: 107–​23; Uro 2016: 41–​70; Czachesz 2017: 88–​121; see also Chapters 2, 5, 6, 7, 11, 13, 16, 18, 19, 23, 24, 27, and 35 in this volume). The application of insights and perspectives from ritual studies may nevertheless pose a challenge to scholars of early Christianity: the study of ritual spans many areas and issues, which may not always look particularly pertinent to the kinds of questions these scholars usually ask. Thus, one key issue in the ritual analysis of early Christian history

4   Risto Uro is relevance. In addition to insights and theories from social and cultural studies, which are more familiar to students of early Christianity, the field of ritual studies draws on research carried out, for example, in experimental psychology and in various branches of the evolutionary and cognitive sciences. These areas of knowledge may seem quite remote from the study of early Christianity, and irrelevant to the textual, historical, and cultural questions that largely engage scholars in this field. This chapter aims to provide a guide to the reader to an understanding of the nature of ritual studies as an emerging interdisciplinary field, with particular emphasis on its relevance to the study of the history of early Christianity. How can either academic theorization about ritual or empirical studies of ritual behaviour enrich and even transform the ways in which we investigate and reconstruct the early centuries of Christian history? What is the added value of the concept of ‘ritual’ for topics that can be and have been studied fruitfully without considering a ritual perspective? What kind of new questions do ritual approaches introduce? How can we study the rituals of ancient peoples on the basis of textual and archaeological sources, which offer insufficient or biased information about the actual practices?

Ritual Studies as a Field of Study The academic study of ritual is rooted in the identification, by late nineteenth-​and early twentieth-​c