
Contents
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Basic Problems Basic Problems
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A Semiotic Approach A Semiotic Approach
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Exemplifying and Applying the Theoretical Considerations Exemplifying and Applying the Theoretical Considerations
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Text as a Ritual Instrument Text as a Ritual Instrument
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Conclusion Conclusion
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Works Cited Works Cited
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Suggested Reading Suggested Reading
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21 Ritual and Texts
Get accessAnders Klostergaard Petersen is Professor for the Study of Religion at Aarhus University, Denmark. He is author and co-editor of several books as well as a large number of book chapters, articles, reviews, etc. on late Second Temple Judaism, Graeco-Roman religion and philosophy, early Christ-religion, and basic matters pertaining to method, theory, and philosophy of science with respect to historical studies. He has worked extensively with ritual theory mostly from Durkheimian, Rappaportian, semiotic and cognitive scientific perspectives. He is currently focusing on fundamental questions pertaining to biocultural evolution. Among his most recent and forthcoming publications are Ancient Philosophy and Religion: Religio-Philosophical Discourses Within the Greco-Roman, Jewish and Early Christian World (edited with George van Kooten, 2016), Contextualizing Rewritten Scripture: Wrestling with Authority (edited with Lieke Wijnia, 2017) and Divination and Magic and Their Interactions (edited with Jesper Sørensen, 2017).
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Published:11 December 2018
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Abstract
This chapter focuses on the general problem pertaining to the relationship between ritual and text. What does it mean, when texts include references to ritual or resonate with language that originates in a ritual setting? There are at least three different problems pertinent to this relationship: (1) the relationship between the actual ritual and the text that purports to describe or evoke the ritual to the intended addressees of the text; (2) the question of rhetorical persuasiveness achieved by the evocation of ritual in the minds of the intended recipients; (3) the question of written texts which individually may become objects of ritual as is well known from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The chapter discusses all three issues and lays stress on ritual as a bridge that may enhance the plausibility of conveying the text to the recipients. In order to understand this, the chapter makes a detour to Peircian semiotics and argues in the vein of Roy Rappaport that ritual by virtue of its conjunction of indexical and symbolic components is crucial for achieving this effect. Ultimately, an overall Durkheimian view of ritual is espoused in which ritual (and cult) are seen as a prerequisite for creating and preserving culture and obtaining maintaining cultural cohesion.
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