Ritual failure in Romans 6

Ritual studies are slow to make a large impact on New Testament studies, despite a number of notable exceptions. This notwithstanding, rituals occur frequently in the New Testament, in particular when there is a problem with a ritual. In this article, recent anthropological work on ‘ritual failure’...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Smit, Peter-Ben 1979- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Interlibrary Loan:Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany)
Published: 2016
In: HTS teologiese studies
Year: 2016, Volume: 72, Issue: 4
Further subjects:B Baptism
B Romans 6
B Ritual Failure
B Rituals
B Paul
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Description
Summary:Ritual studies are slow to make a large impact on New Testament studies, despite a number of notable exceptions. This notwithstanding, rituals occur frequently in the New Testament, in particular when there is a problem with a ritual. In this article, recent anthropological work on ‘ritual failure’ is used to address Paul’s discussion of Roman practices concerning baptism in relation to a person’s walk of life and to argue that this can be understood well as a case of ’ritual failure,’ in which a ritual fails, from Paul’s perspective, to achieve what it should. This leads both to challenging the attitude of the Romans concerning baptism and to a reconsideration of its significance.
ISSN:2072-8050
Contains:Enthalten in: HTS teologiese studies
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.4102/hts.v72i4.3237