[Authors and titles are listed at the end of the review.]
The twelve chapters in Ritual, Emotion, and Materiality in the Early Christian World have their origin in two international conferences, held in Rostock, Germany, in 2019 and 2020. The focus of the volume, however, is narrower than the title suggests. The contributions focus mainly on the New Testament, but not without contextualizing the texts among other writings, and inscriptions and archaeological evidence are also considered.
The contributions clearly implement the requirement to work not only with texts but to include “materiality.” “Materiality is understood in recent studies as a bridge between narrated and experienced realities,” states Soham Al-Suadi in her introduction (p. 1). Chapters 2, 3, 4, and 5 in particular are able to bridge the gap by incorporating archaeological finds. Sharday C. Mosurinjohn raises fundamental methodological questions in the first chapter. She discusses the material turn that (biblical) research experienced in the twentieth century, also with regard to the second major focus of the volume, emotions. Anyone working with archaeological evidence would have to ask: Why were certain things done that way and not differently? How did certain things affect persons, and what emotions did they evoke? Did those emotions change over time? Mosurinjohn cites ancient funerary inscriptions as an example. Nowadays modern epitaphs would mostly evoke sadness, but this need not have been the same in antiquity.
This is followed by chapter 2 by Richard S. Ascough, who examines the necropoleis of Thessalonike and their funerary inscriptions. The chapter focuses on, first, the emotions that can be read in the funerary inscriptions; and second, the place of cemeteries and burials within Greco-Roman society. Ascough cannot satisfactorily accomplish the first task. Like Mosurinjohn, he cautions against interpreting ancient inscriptions in too modern a way; rather, funerary inscriptions would clarify what was customary in a certain society at a certain time. However, Ascough makes it clear how ancient necropoleis were integrated into the city, and how public and visible tombs and their inscriptions were meant to be in order to preserve the memory of individuals. Visibility served to preserve a person’s identity (a buzzword the volume revisits again and again). Furthermore, Ascough points to place as such, the atmosphere created by a necropolis with its inscriptions, dedications, or architecture.
The “atmosphere” (as part of the turn towards materiality!) is also part of the third chapter by Klaus-Michael Bull. Using archaeological evidence, especially from Pergamon and Pompeii, Bull discusses the importance of water “as a cultic cleansing agent.” For example, ancient sanctuaries were usually built near springs so that water could be used within the sanctuary for cathartic, cultic, or therapeutic purposes. But water was also used to create a pleasant atmosphere within the temple.
The second contribution by Richard S. Ascough also points to the spectacular effect of water within the cities. Fountains, baths, and aqueducts thus created a certain atmosphere within the polis, just as private baths also symbolized a person’s status and wealth. Ascough asks about the ritual role of water in Greek and Roman associations, but states: “nowhere do we have an inscription that sets out in detail what such rites might look like” (p. 70-71). Most interesting, however, is Ascoughs discussion of a water-organ that associations might have used as ritual objects during festivities or funerals. Also interesting are questions that merit further consideration such as whether or from when were the Christian gatherings accompanied by music, or whether singing also belonged to the rituals of private associations (as in the Christian gatherings).
Water-rites are also the focus of the fifth chapter by Richard E. DeMaris. In connection with the mysteries of Isis (in Apuleius) and the cult of Asclepius (in Aristides), the author asks about the respective emotions. In addition to the textual evidence, the author discusses the architectural and pictorial evidence of the domus ecclesiae from Dura Europos. For the three different cults DeMaris establishes the same emotional pattern: In connection with water rites (i.e. baptism in the Christian cult) anxiety and fear would dominate in the run-up to the ritual, which would give way to hope and joy after the rite.
More water rites and more discussion of baptism feature in the sixth chapter by Soham Al-Suadi. The focus, however, is on the question of where baptisms took place. For this purpose, Al-Suadi examines baptismal scenes in the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. In doing so, she highlights important differences between an urban and a rural setting. Thus, the ritual experience and the emotions evoked differ depending on whether the baptism took place in an open or a private context.
While Al-Suadi’s contribution builds on Ronald Grimes’ ritual theory, Richard E. DeMaris’ chapter 7 and other contributions draw on the affect- and emotion-theory of Angelos Chaniotis. DeMaris examines the constellation of emotions around baptism (as in chapter 5) and concludes (as in chapter 5) that encounters with the divine are bound by a strong contrast between negative feelings beforehand (anxiety, fear) and positive feelings afterwards (hope, joy). In this, DeMaris describes baptism as a boundary-crossing that effectively contributed to the creation of a new social identity. New here (compared to chapter 5) is a perspective on other emotions such as disgust, and on what emotions a listener or reader would have felt at the following line: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them” (John 6:56).
Peter-Ben Smit in chapter eight takes a holistic view in his contribution on the symbolism of water. On the basis of various excerpts from the Gospel of Mark, Smit argues that water is never only symbolic, it has concrete real-life connotations. Water can be used for washing (unclean to clean) as well as in cultic purification ritual (impure to pure). It is also the means for rapid transportation, and for fishermen a source of income, while at the same time it can mean mortal danger for travellers and fishermen alike. Thus, water appears in Mark’s Gospel as a deeply ambiguous element.
The Gospel of Mark is also central to the next chapter, by May-Britt Melzer. She examines the theme of fear in Mark 4:35-41 and 6:45-52, using narratological methods to illuminate differences in various Greek terms around fear. Not every emotion of fear, Melzer argues, has been valued the same in every society. Emotions are culturally bound, so fear can be interpreted as cowardice in certain contexts. On this basis, Melzer discusses the two Mark scenes and observes how the description of fear shapes the story and elicits different responses from the reader or listener.
Chapter 10 by Soham Al-Suadi stays with the theme of emotions, but brings the understanding of a shared identity even more to the fore. “Hellenistic culture can be understood as ritual society,” Al-Suadi states (p. 178). From this she argues against too sharp a dichotomy between urban and rural identities, just as she rejects a clear distinction between early Christian and other Graeco-Roman group identities, “because emotional and ritual understanding and effect have proven to be superior” (p. 178). She illustrates this thesis with an analysis of the scene in Mark 7.1-23 and Matthew 15.1-20.
A meal scene, as evoked by the episode in Mark 7 / Matthew 15, is also the focus of the eleventh chapter, by Henrike Dilling and Frank Krüger. According to the authors, the washing of the feet in John 12.1-7 and 13.1-10 during the meal has often caused irritation in research. Dilling and Krüger, on the other hand, show that washing was part of the process both before a deipnon and during the transition from deipnon to symposion. Water rites strengthened the common identity and provided a ritual demarcation from outsiders. Like Al-Suadi, the two authors show a great interest in the different textual witnesses, instead of working only with a constructed unitary text. In doing so, they show “that the first Christian communities also discussed the way of the new washing” (p. 198).
In the last chapter, Peter-Ben Smit examines the meal scene that Paul addresses in 1 Cor. 11.17-34. The author first discusses theoretical approaches in terms of ritual studies, systematic theology, and affect theory in order to derive his questions from them. Paul’s letter shows that the social inequality promoted by the meal behaviours of Corinthian Christ-followers made him angry. And just as social inequality results in an affective dimension (namely hunger) as well as a social dimension (shame), Paul’s letter, read aloud, was intended to correct the meal practices as well as bring shame upon the wealthy Corinthians. Social inequality also recalls the physical character of early Christian communities. “Although the evidence we have of their existence consists of texts reflecting on their lives, these lives were anything but textual in the narrow sense of the word” (p. 217).
This last thesis brings the discussion full circle back to the start of the collection, namely the goal of keeping the materiality of the early Christian community and its rituals in view. Thus, while each chapter has its own focus, sometimes with an emphasis on emotion, sometimes on ritual, sometimes on materiality, overall the conference volume offers a unified and coherent collection of texts that contribute substantially to all three aspects mentioned in the title. The contributions all have solid theoretical underpinnings, even if the implications for the analysis of the texts and materials in each chapter were not always entirely clear to the reviewer. But especially the discussion of Chaniotis’ affect- and emotion-theories has produced valuable results for the analysis of the New Testament texts and its rituals. Finally, the extensive indices, which facilitate the use of the book, are most valuable.
A weakness of the volume, however, are the unnecessary repetitions that arise on account of its structure. This is particularly evident in the fact that each chapter has its own endnotes and its own bibliography, which often coincides with the bibliographies of other chapters. This reveals that even the individual chapters are often similar. As an example, water rites are discussed in half of all chapters. Repetition also results when the same author contributes several chapters to the book, as in the case of DeMaris, who presents the same emotion-patterns in baptism and water rites in two chapters. There is nothing wrong with that. But a book with twelve chapters on rituals and emotions in the early Christian world could have offered much more. What if instead of funerary inscriptions, burial rituals had been discussed, too? What if instead of meal and healing scenes, exorcisms had also been discussed (e.g., Mark 1.21-28 or 9.14-29)? What other emotions could have been analyzed by attention to a more diverse range of phenomena?
Ritual, Emotion, and Materiality in the Early Christian World is a successful starting point for further research. For theologians and historians interested in affect- and emotion-studies, the essays offer valuable input for further research that moves beyond a narrow focus on water rites in the New Testament.
Authors and titles
Soham Al-Suadi: Introduction
Sharday C. Mosurinjohn: Theorizing ritual, emotion, and material
Richard S. Ascough: Emotional display in the necropoli at Roman Thessalonike
Klaus-Michael Bull: Water Rites in the world of the New Testament: Archaeological Highlights
Richard S. Ascough: Water rites in Greek and Roman associations
Richard E. DeMaris: Water rites, emotions, and epiphanic encounters in the literary and material record of the Roman east
Soham Al-Suadi: Ritual experience and emotions: The right place for water rites in Luke-Acts
Richard E. DeMaris: Early Christian ritual from the perspective of affect and emotion studies
Peter-Ben Smit: Precious, powerful, and pernicious: The polyvalence of water and water symbolism in early Christianity
May-Britt Melzer: Scared disciples: Emotions of fear in Mark 4:35–41 and 6:45–52
Soham Al-Suadi: “Let the children be fed first” (Mark 7:27): Rituals, emotions, and identity in the Synoptic tradition
Henrike Dilling and Frank Krüger: Water rites as structuring elements in ancient meals: An examination of foot washing in John 12 and 13
Peter-Ben Smit: Physical affect and ritual as starting points of Pauline paranaesis
Richard S. Ascough: Conclusion