Ritual in Early Modern Europe

The 2005 second edition of a comprehensive study of the ritual practices in traditional Christian Europe.

This comprehensive 2005 study of the rituals of early modern Europe argues that the period 1400 to 1700 witnessed a revolution in ritual theory. While reformers sought to replace sacraments with the authority of scripture, and despite attempts by intellectuals to dismiss their power, ritual practices endured as much as ever.The comprehensive 2005 study of rituals in early modern Europe argues that between about 1400 and 1700 a revolution in ritual theory took place that utterly transformed concepts about time, the body, and the presence of spiritual forces in the world. Edward Muir draws on extensive historical research to emphasize the persistence of traditional Christian ritual practices even as educated elites attempted to privilege reason over passion, textual interpretation over ritual action, and moral rectitude over gaining access to supernatural powers. Edward Muir discusses wide ranging themes such as rites of passage, carnivalesque festivity, the rise of manners, Protestant and Catholic Reformations, the alleged anti-Christian rituals of Jews and witches. This edition examines the impact on the European understanding of ritual from the discoveries of new civilizations in the Americas and missionary efforts in China and adds more material about rituals peculiar to women.