About this seminar

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In this seminar, Rev. Dr. Dru Johnson examines the ritual thinking of the biblical authors and its significance for contemporary discussions of ritual practice. From everyday habits to formal religious ceremonies, we inhabit a deeply ritualized world. While Christian traditions have often debated the proper forms and functions of ritual, the biblical authors themselves were deeply invested in prescribing and shaping ritual practices for God's people. What aspects of ritual did they emphasize? What purposes did they believe rituals served? By exploring the ritual thought of figures such as Moses, Jesus, and Paul, this seminar will place biblical perspectives on ritual in conversation with later theological and cultural understandings.
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Key topics

This seminar focuses on the following key topics:

  • What ritual practices are and how can we distinguish them from normal human activities.

  • How the biblical authors develop concepts of rituals starting in the garden in Eden.

  • How rituals change over throughout Scripture and how Jesus changes the Torah’s ritual practices.

  • How we faithfully improvise biblical rituals today.

Lecture outline

    1. About AWKNG

    1. About this seminar

    2. What you'll learn

    3. Presentor

    4. Recommended resources

    1. Lecture 1

    1. Lecture 2

    1. Lecture 3

    1. Lecture 4

Human Rites

  • Free
  • 4 hours of video content
  • 6 Lectures
  • Unlimited access

Presenter

Rev. Dr. Dru Johnson

Revd. Dr. Dru Johnson is the Templeton Senior Research Fellow at Wycliffe Hall, University of Oxford, adjunct professor at Hope College, and the director of the Center for Hebraic Thought. His main area of research has focused on the philosophical and intellectual world of biblical literature. His recent books include Understanding Biblical Law: Skills for Thinking with and through Torah (Baker Academic), What Hath Darwin to Do with Scripture? Comparing Conceptual Worlds of the Bible and Evolution (IVP Academic); Biblical Philosophy: A Hebraic Approach to the Old and New Testaments (Cambridge University Press); Human Rites: The Power of Rituals, Habits, and Sacraments (Eerdmans); The Universal Story: Genesis 1–11 (Lexham); Epistemology and Biblical Theology: From the Pentateuch to Mark’s Gospel (Routledge); and Knowledge by Ritual: A Biblical Prolegomenon to Sacramental Theology (Eisenbrauns).