Ritual conveys rich information, a significant portion of which remains effective even when not consciously perceived. Likewise, many of the effects of ritual exceed their articulation as doctrine or explicit concepts. Noteworthy among these effects are the changes in consciousness characterized as religious ecstasy. The literary evidence for Christian origins—from the Christ assembly in...
This chapter focuses on the growing empirical knowledge about the interaction between bodily actions, human thinking, and the cultural embeddedness of human cognition. An approach to ritual based on this expanded view of cognition produces important perspectives and insights for the study of religions. Embodied cognition is a very diverse field and the chapter therefore draws on what is called...