The Oxford Handbook of Ritual and Worship in the Hebrew Bible
Edited by Samuel E. Balentine
Abstract
The focus of this Handbook is on ritual and worship from the perspective of biblical studies, particularly on the Hebrew Bible and its ancient Near Eastern antecedents. Within this context, attention will be given to the development of ideas in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim thinking, but only insofar as they connect with or extend the trajectory of biblical precedents. The volume reflects a wide range of analytical approaches to ancient texts, inscriptions, iconography, and ritual artifacts. It examines the social history and cultural knowledge encoded in rituals, and explores the way rituals shape and are shaped by politics, economics, ethical imperatives, and religion itself. Toward this end, the volume is organized into six major sections: Historical Contexts, Interpretive Approaches, Ritual Elements (participants, places, times, objects, practices), Underlying Cultural and Theological Perspectives, History of Interpretation, Social-Cultural Functions, and Theology and Theological Heritage.
Keywords:
Clean/Unclean,
Death/Afterlife,
Divine Presence/Absence,
Economics,
Ethics,
Politics,
Ritual,
Ritual Theory,
Iconography,
Iconic texts,
Sabbath,
Sacred space,
Sickness/Healing,
Sin/Expiation,
Social/Cultural anthropology
Bibliographic Information
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- Print Publication Date:
- Sep 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780190222116
- Published online:
- Oct 2020
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190222116.001.0001
