Ritual in Early Modern Europe

Abstract

This is an ambitious, entertaining, and well-written, but nevertheless somewhat puzzling book.The author seeks to illustrate and analyze the process by which what were seen as powerful invocations of the divine in the Middle Ages were transformed into "mere" or "empty" ritual by the end of the eighteenth century.Rather than an original investigation of archival sources, it is a survey of the literature on ritual theory, and of published primary and secondary sources.(This is, indeed, in keeping with the stated mission of the series, New Approaches to European History, of which this book is a part.)The book is divided into four parts.Part One, entitled, "The Ritual Moment,"is largely expository and deals with rituals marking the individual's passage from one social state to another, and with those marking the passage of time.ChapterOne, "The Rites of Passage," is largely an application of Van Gennep's tripartite schema of ritualsseparation (preliminary), transition (liminary), and incorpo- ration (postliminary)to the rituals which demarcated the stages of life in early modern Europe: birth and baptism, marriage, and death.It ends with the observation that Luther's protest against the enormous ritual superstructure which sur-