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Knowledge by Ritual: A Biblical Prolegomenon to Sacramental Theology
What do rituals have to do with knowledge? Knowledge by Ritual examines the epistemological role of rites in Christian Scripture. By putting biblical rituals in conversation with philosophical and scientific views of knowledge, Johnson argues that knowing is a skilled adeptness in both the biblical literature and scientific enterprise. If rituals are a way of thinking in community akin to scientific communities, then the biblical emphasis on rites that lead to knowledge cannot be ignored. Practicing a rite to know occurs frequently in the Hebrew Bible. YHWH answers Abram's skepticism “How shall I know that I will possess the land?” with a ritual intended to make him know (Gen 15:7 21). The recurring rites of Sabbath (Exod 31:13) and dwelling in a Sukkah (Lev 23:43) direct Israel toward discernment of an event's enduring significance. Likewise, building stone memorials aims at the knowledge of generations to come (Josh 4:6).
Though the New Testament appropriates the Torah rites through strategic reemployment, the primary questions of sacramental theology have often presumed that rites are symbolically encoded. Hence, understanding sacraments has sometimes been reduced to decoding the symbols of the rite. Knowledge by Ritual argues that the rites of Israel, as portrayed in the biblical texts, disposed Israelites to recognize something they could not have seen apart from their participation. By examining the epistemological function of rituals, Johnson's monograph gives readers a new set of questions to explore both the sacraments of Israel and contemporary sacramental theology.
Though the New Testament appropriates the Torah rites through strategic reemployment, the primary questions of sacramental theology have often presumed that rites are symbolically encoded. Hence, understanding sacraments has sometimes been reduced to decoding the symbols of the rite. Knowledge by Ritual argues that the rites of Israel, as portrayed in the biblical texts, disposed Israelites to recognize something they could not have seen apart from their participation. By examining the epistemological function of rituals, Johnson's monograph gives readers a new set of questions to explore both the sacraments of Israel and contemporary sacramental theology.
289 pages, Paperback
Published January 28, 2016
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About the author
Dru Johnson
15 books45 followersDru Johnson (PhD, University of St. Andrews) is Templeton Senior Research Fellow and director of the Abrahamic Theistic Origins Project at Wycliffe Hall, University of Oxford. He is also a visiting professor at Hope College, director of the Center for Hebraic Thought, editor of the Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Biblical Criticism series, and cohost of the OnScript podcast. His books include Biblical Philosophy and Human Rites: The Power of Rituals, Habits, and Sacraments. Johnson splits his time between Holland, Michigan, and Oxford, England.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 21, 2017
There have been a few books written in defense of ritual in Christian worship and formation. One such book is You are What You Love by James K. A. Smith. If you have never really thought through the legitimacy of ritual in Christian formation - what it is, why it is - then Smith's book is a good place to start. Dru Johnson's book Knowledge by Ritual should be next on your reading list - he delves much more deeply into the Scriptural examples of the legitimacy, and may I be so bold to say it, the NECESSITY of ritual in Christian formation and worship.
From my personal experience and conversations with Christians, 'ritual' is the most misunderstood reality in the Protestant world. It is really presumed that 'ritual' is bad, 'spontaneity' is good. Nothing could be further from the truth - and Dru Johnson shows why in this lucid, cogently and tightly argued book that has been a long time coming in my opinion. In a nutshell what Johnson is trying to show is that 'ritual' in Scripture is not constructed to express a belief. Rather, 'ritual' in Scripture - and he focuses on the OT, though also gets into some NT material at the end of his book - is put in place by YHWH in order to show the Israelites something that they could not learn otherwise - as the phrase is often expressed, YHWH sets up the ritual "so that you [Israel] may know". Johnson masterfully exegetes Old Testament passages convincingly in order to demonstrate his thesis.
But he first lays the groundwork by exposing the weaknesses in ways of thinking that emphasize learning as a mental activity (Descartes etc) while deemphasizing the importance of the body for gaining knowledge and understanding reality. This is the best discussion I have ever read on the role of the body in forming our epistemological convictions. He also converses with anthropological/sociological studies of 'ritual' as he demonstrates his thesis. He deals thoroughly also with the supposed critique of 'ritual' by the Old Testament prophets in a very insightful and masterful way. His exegesis of the Scriptures is clear and masterful as well. Johnson is always repeating and reiterating the point he is trying to make - so you always know what he is trying to demonstrate and why.
It might be rough going if you are not familiar with critiques of Enlightenment dualism (for example found in Descartes and his heirs which have more or less shaped the whole western epistemological worldview - i.e. - the way we know the world) by Polanyi etc . . . but Dru Johnson is such a good writer that in reading his work you will actually get what you need to understand what he is saying and why he is saying it. This book will not only forever illumine your understanding of the foundational character of ritual in the Old Testament for instruction and learning what YHWH wants Israel to know, it will help you understand our present culture and how the 'rituals' of our culture are subtly forming our minds in ways that are antithetical to the Gospel and that eclipse, by our undergoing worldly rituals, the very knowledge of God that Apostolic tradition and practices/ritual were handed down (traditioned to us) in order to give us.
I have to say that few books have fundamentally shifted the very ground of my understanding of reality and how the 'rituals' that I participate in daily - so often without realizing it - are not so much EXPRESSING what I believe as they are practices that SHAPE my beliefs. This is so in Church and in the world - as St Paul has exhorted us in Romans 12:1-2. I cannot recommend this work by Dru Johnson more highly.
From my personal experience and conversations with Christians, 'ritual' is the most misunderstood reality in the Protestant world. It is really presumed that 'ritual' is bad, 'spontaneity' is good. Nothing could be further from the truth - and Dru Johnson shows why in this lucid, cogently and tightly argued book that has been a long time coming in my opinion. In a nutshell what Johnson is trying to show is that 'ritual' in Scripture is not constructed to express a belief. Rather, 'ritual' in Scripture - and he focuses on the OT, though also gets into some NT material at the end of his book - is put in place by YHWH in order to show the Israelites something that they could not learn otherwise - as the phrase is often expressed, YHWH sets up the ritual "so that you [Israel] may know". Johnson masterfully exegetes Old Testament passages convincingly in order to demonstrate his thesis.
But he first lays the groundwork by exposing the weaknesses in ways of thinking that emphasize learning as a mental activity (Descartes etc) while deemphasizing the importance of the body for gaining knowledge and understanding reality. This is the best discussion I have ever read on the role of the body in forming our epistemological convictions. He also converses with anthropological/sociological studies of 'ritual' as he demonstrates his thesis. He deals thoroughly also with the supposed critique of 'ritual' by the Old Testament prophets in a very insightful and masterful way. His exegesis of the Scriptures is clear and masterful as well. Johnson is always repeating and reiterating the point he is trying to make - so you always know what he is trying to demonstrate and why.
It might be rough going if you are not familiar with critiques of Enlightenment dualism (for example found in Descartes and his heirs which have more or less shaped the whole western epistemological worldview - i.e. - the way we know the world) by Polanyi etc . . . but Dru Johnson is such a good writer that in reading his work you will actually get what you need to understand what he is saying and why he is saying it. This book will not only forever illumine your understanding of the foundational character of ritual in the Old Testament for instruction and learning what YHWH wants Israel to know, it will help you understand our present culture and how the 'rituals' of our culture are subtly forming our minds in ways that are antithetical to the Gospel and that eclipse, by our undergoing worldly rituals, the very knowledge of God that Apostolic tradition and practices/ritual were handed down (traditioned to us) in order to give us.
I have to say that few books have fundamentally shifted the very ground of my understanding of reality and how the 'rituals' that I participate in daily - so often without realizing it - are not so much EXPRESSING what I believe as they are practices that SHAPE my beliefs. This is so in Church and in the world - as St Paul has exhorted us in Romans 12:1-2. I cannot recommend this work by Dru Johnson more highly.
October 2, 2020
In this book, Johnson has done an incredible job of balancing scientific and philosophical research with Biblical exegesis. His discernment of the contours of Polanyian epistemology in Scripture is enlightening, but I really loved that he allowed the Scripture to lead the conversation and then he turned to note how those same scriptural themes had been explored and utilized (albeitly slightly differently) in modern scientific practices and even articulated in Polanyian epistemology (among other philosophical works).
The subtitle for this book is “A Biblical Prolegomena to Sacramental Theology” and I think that is quite an apt explainer for what he is accomplishing here. Johnson is essentially arguing that before we can talk about what is occurring in sacramental practices and what it means (which is largely the concern of sacramental theology), we must first engage the scriptural foundation for ritual practices (with the understanding that sacraments are essentially sacred rituals) and recognize the epistemological function of these rites. Biblically, rituals were established so that the people would know. This provides an epistemological teleology for rituals. It is upon this epistemological foundation of embodied, social, and ritualized practices that sacramental theology does its work. A reduction of rituals to mere symbology is a misrepresentation of their function in Scripture and how humankind was created to know.
That said, this is obviously a more academically oriented text. If you want something that doesn’t delve quite so deep on the academic and philosophical side and prefer a more personal, practical approach to the subject, I would recommend Johnson’s book “Human Rites: The Power of Rituals, Habits, and Sacraments”, which is a more practical distillation of this book (“Knowledge by Ritual”).
The subtitle for this book is “A Biblical Prolegomena to Sacramental Theology” and I think that is quite an apt explainer for what he is accomplishing here. Johnson is essentially arguing that before we can talk about what is occurring in sacramental practices and what it means (which is largely the concern of sacramental theology), we must first engage the scriptural foundation for ritual practices (with the understanding that sacraments are essentially sacred rituals) and recognize the epistemological function of these rites. Biblically, rituals were established so that the people would know. This provides an epistemological teleology for rituals. It is upon this epistemological foundation of embodied, social, and ritualized practices that sacramental theology does its work. A reduction of rituals to mere symbology is a misrepresentation of their function in Scripture and how humankind was created to know.
That said, this is obviously a more academically oriented text. If you want something that doesn’t delve quite so deep on the academic and philosophical side and prefer a more personal, practical approach to the subject, I would recommend Johnson’s book “Human Rites: The Power of Rituals, Habits, and Sacraments”, which is a more practical distillation of this book (“Knowledge by Ritual”).
April 4, 2023
I was sort of burned out on epistemology by the time I got to this book, so it took me awhile to go through. I would really need to go through this again in the future to get the most out of it. But what I did get out of it was outstanding.
It's fascinating how clear it is that ritual shapes and forms us, though being rationalists that we are here in the West, we just don't think that way. We believe we're above being formed because we view ourselves as intelligent formers of other things, not as the ones being formed.
Personally, I thought this was much better than Johnson's Biblical Philosophy and Human Rites, but I liked Biblical Knowing overall for a mixture of complexity and simplicity. I thought that book was the best bang for the buck.
It's fascinating how clear it is that ritual shapes and forms us, though being rationalists that we are here in the West, we just don't think that way. We believe we're above being formed because we view ourselves as intelligent formers of other things, not as the ones being formed.
Personally, I thought this was much better than Johnson's Biblical Philosophy and Human Rites, but I liked Biblical Knowing overall for a mixture of complexity and simplicity. I thought that book was the best bang for the buck.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews