Tracing the Ritual Body

Ada Taggar Cohen

ISBN 10: 0567710580 / ISBN 13: 9780567710581

Published by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, GB, 2026

About this Item

This volume utilizes Catherine Bell's ritual theory to shed new light on the many rituals reflected in ancient Mediterranean texts. In recent decades scholars of religion have come to realize that ritual and bodily practices are just as important for religion as beliefs and doctrine. With the development of ritual studies in the 1990s there arose a critical framework for investigating ritual and practice. Only recently, however, has Bell's theorizing been employed to study the rituals portrayed in ancient texts. This cross-disciplinary examination assesses the utility of Bell's theorizing for studying the textual evidence for rituals of the ancient Near East, the Hebrew Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the New Testament, and other early Christian literature. The contributors to this volume illustrate a path away from regarding rituals as inert and fixed and toward a more complex and vibrant interactive model of ritual behaviour. In this volume, as each scholar works to recover the traces of long-past rituals in a particular set of materials, these and other concepts are consciously employed to guide or challenge the investigation, pushing beyond previous conclusions about ancient rituals. The contributors' attention to theory, and especially the social context, practical function, and symbolic interpretation, set this collection apart from studies that consider the rituals in more traditional textual ways.

Seller Inventory # LU-9780567710581

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Tracing the Ritual Body
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, GB
• Publication Date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0567710580
• ISBN 13: 9780567710581
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 340 grams

About this title

Synopsis

This volume utilizes Catherine Bell’s ritual theory to shed new light on the many rituals reflected in ancient Mediterranean texts. In recent decades scholars of religion have come to realize that ritual and bodily practices are just as important for religion as beliefs and doctrine. With the development of ritual studies in the 1990s there arose a critical framework for investigating ritual and practice. Only recently, however, has Bell’s theorizing been employed to study the rituals portrayed in ancient texts. This cross-disciplinary examination assesses the utility of Bell’s theorizing for studying the textual evidence for rituals of the ancient Near East, the Hebrew Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the New Testament, and other early Christian literature. The contributors to this volume illustrate a path away from regarding rituals as inert and fixed and toward a more complex and vibrant interactive model of ritual behaviour. In this volume, as each scholar works to recover the traces of long-past rituals in a particular set of materials, these and other concepts are consciously employed to guide or challenge the investigation, pushing beyond previous conclusions about ancient rituals. The contributors’ attention to theory, and especially the social context, practical function, and symbolic interpretation, set this collection apart from studies that consider the rituals in more traditional textual ways.

About the Authors

Ada Taggar Cohen is Professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at Doshisha University, Japan.

Laura Quick is Assistant Professor of Religion and Judaic Studies at Princeton University, USA.

Richard DeMaris is Professor of New Testament at Valparaiso University, Indiana.

Jacqueline Vayntrub is Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible at Yale University, USA

Jonathan Schwiebert is Assistant Professor of Religion at Lenoir-Rhyne College in Hickory, North Carolina, USA.