Ritual, Gender, and the Body in the Early Christian World

by: DeMaris, R.E. Al-Saudi, S. Ascough, R.S.

Price: 175,00 EURO

1 copy in stock

Ritual, Gender, and the Body in the Early Christian World

Edited By Richard E. DeMaris, Soham Al-Suadi, Richard S. Ascough
Copyright 2026

Description

This volume investigates the central role of physical bodies, ritual technologies, healing practices, gender constructions, and visual imagery in creating and sustaining religious meaning in antiquity.

Religious life in the ancient world was profoundly shaped by the interplay of materiality, ritual, embodiment, and visuality. Far from being purely intellectual or doctrinal, religious practices across Greco-Roman and early Christian contexts were enacted through tangible, sensory, and embodied experiences that engaged worshippers physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Drawing from a rich array of primary sources and theoretical frameworks, especially gender studies and ritual studies, the chapters collectively emphasize that religion in this period was fundamentally experienced through ritualized actions, embodied transformations, and visually charged sacred spaces. With its focus on ritual, gender, and the body, the book offers readers a fresh approach to ancient Christianity and the Greco-Roman world in which it emerged.

This interdisciplinary volume is suitable for students and scholars working on the New Testament and early Christianity and issues of ritual, gender, and the body in the early Christian world.

Table of Contents

List of figures ix

List of tables xi

List of contributors xii

Acknowledgments xv

Abbreviations xvi

Introduction: Embodying belief 1

RICHARD E. DEMARIS

1 Theorizing ritual and gender: The case of masculinity 8

ERIC C. STEWART

2 Readjusting enslavement ritually: The case of Paul?s Letter to Philemon 28

SUZAN SIERKSMA-AGTERES, ILSE SWART, AND PETER-BEN SMIT

3 Alexander the Great submits to a Judean high priest?!: Ritual and masculine performance in Josephus? account of their meeting 46

ERIC C. STEWART

4 Ritual failure and masculinity in the martyrdom of Polycarp 60

PETER-BEN SMIT

5 Gender and early Christian visual discourse: The pictorial program of the Dura-Europos baptismal room 78

RICHARD E. DEMARIS

6 Female agency in ancient Greek religion 96

ANNE GÜRLACH

7 Placing the kitchen and the storeroom in the ritual landscape 111

KATRINA ROSIE

8 “The girl with the Pythian spirit”: Women?s ritual labor in Acts 16 129

BRIGIDDA ZAPATA

9 Naked in court—Humiliation and salvation: A comparison of Phryne, Thecla, and the naked young man of Mark 14:50–52 144

HENRIKE BLOCK

10 The body and its parts: Divided tongues as votive body parts in Acts 2:3 158

SOHAM AL-SUADI

11 Holy oil, haptics, and healing 181

ALICIA J. BATTEN

12 Healthy water, harmful water, and early Christian ambivalence toward it 197

RICHARD E. DEMARIS AND HENRIKE BLOCK

13 Geographic potency: Using magical papyri to find good drugs 215

JON-PHILIPPE RUHUMULIZA

Conclusion 243

RICHARD S. ASCOUGH

Index of ancient sources 253

Index of modern authors 263

Index of subjects 269

Ritual, Gender, and the Body in the Early Christian World

by: DeMaris, R.E. Al-Saudi, S. Ascough, R.S.

• ISBN-13: 9781032915982 / 978-1-032-9158-2
• ISBN-03: 1032915986 / 1-03-291598-6
• Routledge, London, 2026

Price: 175,00 EURO

1 copy in stock