Revealing rituals : washings and meals in Galatians and 1 Corinthians
This thesis attempts to understand the place of rituals in the formation of early Christianity as represented by Galatians and 1 Corinthians. By exploring Paul’s reference to ritual washings and meals with a heuristic use of ritual theory, we conclude that rituals in early Christianity were inherent...
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Durham University
2013
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| Online Access: | http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.573714 |
| Summary: | This thesis attempts to understand the place of rituals in the formation of early Christianity as represented by Galatians and 1 Corinthians. By exploring Paul’s reference to ritual washings and meals with a heuristic use of ritual theory, we conclude that rituals in early Christianity were inherently revelatory, in that they revealed the dawning of a particular time (the messianic age) through the bodies of the ritual participants. This bodily revelation established both a distinctly Christian ethic and a distinctly Christian social space by which such an ethical identity might be identified and sustained. |
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