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Knowledge by Ritual:

A Biblical Prolegomenon to Sacrarmental Theology
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What do rituals have to do with knowledge? Knowledge by Ritual examines the epistemological role of rites in Christian Scripture. By putting biblical rituals in conversation with philosophical and scientific views of knowledge, Johnson argues that knowing is a skilled adeptness in both the biblical literature and scientific enterprise. If rituals are a way of thinking in community akin to scientific communities, then the biblical emphasis on rites that lead to knowledge cannot be ignored. Practicing a rite to know occurs frequently in the Hebrew Bible. YHWH answers Abram’s skepticism—“How shall I know that I will possess the land?”—with a ritual intended to make him know (Gen 15:7–21). The recurring rites of Sabbath (Exod 31:13) and dwelling in a Sukkah (Lev 23:43) direct Israel toward discernment of an event’s enduring significance. Likewise, building stone memorials aims at the knowledge of generations to come (Josh 4:6).

Though the New Testament appropriates the Torah rites through strategic reemployment, the primary questions of sacramental theology have often presumed that rites are symbolically encoded. Hence, understanding sacraments has sometimes been reduced to decoding the symbols of the rite. Knowledge by Ritual argues that the rites of Israel, as portrayed in the biblical texts, disposed Israelites to recognize something they could not have seen apart from their participation. By examining the epistemological function of rituals, Johnson’s monograph gives readers a new set of questions to explore both the sacraments of Israel and contemporary sacramental theology.


Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Preface

Introduction: Overcoming Ritual's Negative Connotations

PART I: EPISTEMOLOGY, RITUAL THEORY, AND METHODOLOGY

1. Why Standard Theories of Knowledge Are Insufficient

2. What Is a Rite and What Does It Have to Do with Knowledge?

3. How We Will Proceed: Cautions and Liabilities of This Study

PART II: THE GENERAL CASE FOR RITUAL KNOWING

4. The Biblical Idea of Truth and Its Consequences for Rituals

5. The Centrality of the Body for Knowing

6. The Scientific Use of Ritual in order to Know

PART III: THE BIBLICAL CASE FOR RITUAL KNOWING

7. Why Israel's Rites Are Epistemological in the Hebrew Bible

8. Tests and the Prophetic Indictment of Ritual in the Hebrew Bible

9. Continuity and Ritual Knowing in the Early Jerusalemite Jesus Community

10. Ritualization: A Better Construct than Supersessionism

PART IV: THEOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS OF RITUAL KNOWING

11. Ritual as an Ethically Prepared Process

12. Knowledge as a Subset of Ethics

13. Implications for Constructing Sacramental Theology

Bibliography

Scripture Index

Author and Topic Index

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