wrote, and transmitted them. There are three aspects of textual interpretation
that are helpful here. (1) First, some texts simply describe ritual practices or
address aspects of them. For example, many passages in Paul’s First Epistle to
the Corinthians answer questions or address problems related to ritual practices.
(2) Second, we can make assumptions about the use of passages in ritual settings
(Uro, 2013b, pp. 67–72). The interpretation of New Testament passages as
baptismal formulas, creeds, doxologies, or hymns is a classical topic of biblical
scholarship. However, it is not always straightforward to establish whether a text
was actually uttered or sung in a ritual setting or its author simply followed
some conventional pattern. For example, hymns or prayers could be poetic
compositions that were not used in a liturgy. (3) Evidence from the cultural
environment of the New Testament helps us understand ritual practices even if
they are not explicitly described in the text. This approach has to be applied with
caution, however. The available sample of contemporary practices might be
biased or not well understood. Often there are several different practices that
can be brought into connection with New Testament materials. For example,
scholars used both the Jewish Passover meal as well as the Greek and Roman
banquet to understand the origins of the Eucharist.
With these preliminary considerations in mind, we can now turn to the
cognitive theories of ritual and discuss a number of test cases from the New
Testament. Two passages that we will mention repeatedly are the instructions
about prayer in the Sermon of the Mount (Matt. 5:5–13) and Paul’s discussion
of the Corinthian meal practice (1 Cor. 11:17–34). Clearly, both of these texts
refer to important ritual practices in emerging Christianity. Classical questions
related to these ritual practices concern their origins (What traditional elements
are used in the Lord’s Prayer? Did the Eucharist originate in the Jewish Passover
meal?), textual transmission (Is the doxology part of the Lord’sPrayer?),
historical context (Did Jesus pray the Lord’s Prayer? What caused the disagree-
ments in Corinth?), and various semantic details (Does“Your will be done”
refer to God’s action or to humans’ actions? What were the Corinthians
required to“remember”in the Eucharist?). While studying these passages (as
well as others) in the framework of ritual theories sheds new light on some of
these questions, they also push a different set of questions to the foreground:
Why did early Christians perform these rituals? Why did they prefer to perform
them in some particular form? What impact did such practices have on
individuals and groups? How did participants understand their ritual actions?
5.2 ACTING WITHOUT PRACTICAL PURPOSEA distinctly psychological understanding of rituals that emerged in modernity
was Sigmund Freud’s theory of religious practice as compulsive behavior
90 Cognitive Science and the New Testament