Christian Ritual Contexts

This chapter investigates how Christian rituals or ritualizing behaviour supplied resources used by scribes in formulating incantations. On the one hand, elements derived from Christian rituals demonstrate the importance and efficacy of those rituals in generating resources for writers of amulets. On the other hand, variations in how elements derived from Christian rituals are incorporated into amulets reveal that, consciously or not, scribes drew on these resources with some freedom. The chapter discusses connections between acclamations used in Christian worship and in amulets; between the services of morning and evening prayer and the selection of psalms in amulets; between christological acclamations used in rites of exorcism and in amulets; and between the cult of saints and appeals to their intercessions in amulets. The chapter also observes that the traditions on which incantations drew were more diverse than those preserved in the authorized liturgies of the Egyptian church.