The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Ritual

includes index and biblioraphy

1. Ritual Theory Introduction : Ritual in the Study of Early Christianity ..............3 Ritualization and Ritual Invention ..........18 Ritual as Action, Performance, and Practice ................38 Ritual, Identity, and Emotion ........55 Ritual and Embodied Cognition ............74 Ritual and Corperation .....95 Ritual and Transmission ...........115 2. Ritual in the Ancient mediterranean World Ancient Sanctuaries ...........137 Associations, Guilds, Clubs ..........154 Household and Family ......171 Magic .........187 Communal Meals ........204 Purification ...........220 Prayer ..........245 Music ..........265 Sacrifice and Votives ..........282 Pilgrimage and Festivals ..........302 Divination .........319 Initiation ........334 Mortuary rituals ............353 Ritual and Texts .........370 3. Ritual in Nascent Christianity Water Ritual ..........391 Meal Practices .......409 Rituals of Reintegration ..........426 Ritual and Healing ...............444 Sacrificial Practice and Language .............462 Ritual and Religious experience ...........477 Ritual and Emerging church hierarchy .............491 Ritual and Orthodoxy .............503 4. Ritual in the Ancient Church Christian Initiation .............523 Eucharistic Practices ..............538 Ritualizing Time ...............554 Early Christian Prayer ...........570 Ritual and Early christian Art ...........587 Hymns and Psalmody ...........610 Wedding Rituals and Episcopal Power ...............627 Women`s Rituals and Women`s Ritualizing ..........644 Fasting as an Ascetic Ritual .............661 The Cult of saints .............676 Rituals and the Christianization of Urban Space ..........684