Ritual in Early Modern Europe (New Approaches to European History, Series Number 11) - Tapa dura

'... coherent, readable, and stimualting ... The book is just the right length for its intended student readership.' Economic History Review

' ... an excellent introduction to a wide range of topics that form part of that new history of sensibility, of emotion and experience that now occupies the attention of many early modern historians.' History

The first comprehensive study of rituals in early modern Europe, this book 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. In this work of synthesis Professor Muir draws on the extensive anthropology-inspired historical research that has been published during the past twenty years, and emphasizes the persistence of traditional Christian ritual practices even as educated elites attempted to privilege reason over passion, textual interpretation over ritual action, and personal moral rectitude over gaining access to supernatural powers. The themes discussed by Professor Muir are wide-ranging and include rites of passage, carnivalesque festivity, Protestant and Catholic Reformations, and the alleged anti-Christian rituals of Jews and witches.