I have long felt that one aspect of Old Testament studies that has been neglected has been the study of rituals. This is especially the case among Protestant scholars. Protestantism began as a protest against the Roman Catholic church, and as a result many things associated with the Catholic church, including ritual, have often been viewed in a negative light. Add to this are the critiques of ritual in the prophetic books and the New Testament. Because of this, Christians have often seen little reason to study rituals.
But considering that ritual is such a central part of the Old Testament — especially the Torah — we cannot ignore it if we are going to understand the Old Testament in all its fullness. Fortunately, a number of scholars have begun to focus on rituals in the past couple of decades.
This month’s RBL has a review of a new book by Gerald Klingbeil entitled Bridging the Gap: Ritual and Ritual Texts in the Bible. The publisher’s description of the book:
This volume is intended to introduce university and seminary students and scholars to the neglected field of ritual studies, particularly within the larger context of biblical and theological studies. At the same time, the author hopes to further the discussion by interacting with numerous scholars in the field, providing an extensive bibliography of relevant works. Klingbeil defines the basic terms used in ritual studies and explains the concepts involved in interpreting biblical ritual. He offers a broad history of the study of biblical ritual, beginning with the critiques of ritual found in the Old Testament prophetic books and surveying attitudes toward ritual down to modern times. Drawing on the fields of anthropology and sociology, as well as his decade of work in the field, Klingbeil presents a comprehensive reading strategy for biblical ritual texts. In addition, he explores connections between ritual studies and theological research. This ground-breaking study promises to generate discussion about biblical ritual and provides an excellent introduction to this growing field of study for students and scholars.
The review of the book by Wes Bergen is worth a read. Although he critiques the book for a number of shortcomings — particularly its failure to define terms adequately — he sees it as fulfilling the role of a much needed introduction to the field of ritual studies. Although I have done some work in ritual studies, I could use a good solid introduction. I think I will have to try to pick this one up at the SBL meeting next month.
