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

1st Edition

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

Edited By Richard E. DeMaris, Soham Al-Suadi, Richard S. Ascough Copyright 2026
290 Pages 23 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

290 Pages 23 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
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... Read more
 

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

Biography

Richard E. DeMaris is Senior Research Professor of Religious Studies at Valparaiso University (USA), whose special interest is early Christian ritual.

Soham Al-Suadi is Professor of New Testament Studies at the University of Rostock (Germany), with a research focus on early Christian ritual practices, meals in antiquity, and gender-critical biblical interpretation.

Richard S. Ascough is Professor of Religious Studies at Queen’s University (Canada) and has published widely on the social dynamics of early Christ groups as well as Greek and Roman associations.

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