RRE4206 ¨C Ritual in Early Judaism, Christianity and Islam

Course content

Religious ritual practices and concepts are an essential part of the three Abrahamic religions Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. This course is an investigation of the worship traditions of these three religions as they appear throughout the first millennium CE.

The first part of the course is intended to give students a general knowledge of ritual theory and terminology and of methods in ritual studies. This part of the course will also contain a mapping of the ritual landscape of these three Abrahamic religions, how they differ and how they overlap. Lastly, the first modules will introduce central theoretical concepts such as sacred space and sacred time, and how they are perceived in the three worship traditions.

During the second part of the course, we focus on selected themes in a comparative perspective. What comprises daily worship for Jews, Christians and Muslims during the first millennium CE? How are ordinary and extraordinary life events framed and affected by ritual practices? How do ritual practices impact lived and embodied experience, gender roles and social hierarchies?

Themes for analysis and discussion are ritual meals and fasts, purification, initiation and rites of passage, prayer, pilgrimage, mortuary ritual, hymns, ritual participation, ritual efficacy and the relationship between ritual and materiality. The interrelationship, mutual influences and differences between the three worship traditions will be explored throughout the course, and there will be an emphasis on applying ritual and liturgical theory to the examples that we study.

Learning outcome

By the end of this course students will:

• acquire knowledge and understanding of ritual practices and concepts in Judaism, Christianity and Islam in the first millennium CE.
• acquire an understanding of how these historical practices and concepts relate to contemporary practices and concepts in Abrahamic religious traditions.
• be able to compare these three Abrahamic worship traditions and recognize their similarities and differences. This will enhance the student¡¯s general knowledge and understanding of these three religions.
• acquire knowledge and understanding of ritual and liturgical theory and will develop a skill in applying this theory to concrete empirical examples.