Ritual, Gender, and the Body in the Early Christian World (Hardcover)

Introduction: Embodying belief - Richard E. DeMaris; 1. Theorizing ritual and gender: The case of masculinity - Eric C. Stewart; 2. Readjusting enslavement ritually: The case of Paul’s Letter to Philemon - Suzan Sierksma-Agteres, Ilse Swart, and Peter-Ben Smit; 3. Alexander the Great submits to a Judean high priest?! Ritual and masculine performance in Josephus’ account of their meeting - Eric C. Stewart; 4. Ritual failure and masculinity in the martyrdom of Polycarp - Peter-Ben Smit; 5. Gender and early Christian visual discourse: The pictorial program of the Dura-Europos baptismal room - Richard E. DeMaris; 6. Female agency in ancient Greek religion - Anne Gurlach; 7. Placing the kitchen and the storeroom in the ritual landscape - Katrina Rosie; 8. “The girl with the Pythian spirit”: Women’s ritual labor in Acts 16 - Brigidda Zapata; 9. Naked in court?humiliation and salvation: A comparison of Phryne, Thecla, and the naked young man of Mark 14:50?52 - Henrike Block; 10. The body and its parts: Divided tongues as votive body parts in Acts 2:3 - Soham Al-Suadi; 11. Holy oil, haptics, and healing - Alicia J. Batten; 12. Healthy water, harmful water, and early Christian ambivalence toward it - Richard E. DeMaris and Henrike Block; 13. Geographic potency: Using magical papyri to find good drugs - Jon-Philippe Ruhumuliza; Conclusion: Richard S. Ascough.