Foundations in Ritual Studies

by Bradshaw, Paul

• ISBN13: 9780801034992
• ISBN10: 080103499X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-09-01
• Publisher: Baker Academic

Summary

The new field of ritual studies applies anthropological methodology to the study of religious actions. The first collection of its kind, Foundations in Ritual Studies offers students of Christian liturgy fresh insights from specialists in anthropology, religious studies, and Christian liturgy. The list of contributors includes Romano Guardini, Mark Seale, John Witvliet, Mary Douglas, Victor Turner, Nathan Mitchell, Ronald Grimes, Catherine Bell, Margaret Mary Kelleher, and Herbert Fingarette. This one-volume collection makes their landmark contributions available to professors, graduate students, theologians, and biblical scholars.

Author Biography

Paul Bradshaw (PhD, University of London) is professor of liturgy at the University of Notre Dame and director of Notre Dame's London Centre. He is also a priest-vicar of Westminster Abbey and the author of The Search for the Origins of Christian Worship. John Melloh (PhD, St. Louis University) is director of the John S. Marten Program in Homiletics and Liturgies at the University of Notre Dame.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
Acknowledgements	p. ix
Context
	p. 3
An open letter	p. 3
	p. 9
Ritual	p. 9
	p. 17
For our own purposes: the appropriation of the social sciences in liturgical studies	p. 18
Classical Views
	p. 43
Purity and Danger	p. 44
Natural Symbols	p. 57
	p. 73
Liminality and communitas	p. 74
The Forest of Symbols	p. 85
The Field of Ritual
	p. 103
New directions in ritual research	p. 104
	p. 131
Modes of ritual sensibility	p. 132
Liturgical supinity, liturgical erectitude: on the embodiment of ritual authority	p. 148
	p. 166
Ritual, change, and changing rituals	p. 167
The authority of ritual experts	p. 176
Method
	p. 201
Liturgical theology: a task and a method	p. 202
Author index	p. 223
Subject index	p. 226
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