Doors to the Sacred Bibliography
Chapter 1

Sacraments in All Religions

For Further Reading

Campbell, Joseph, and Bill Moyers. The Power of Myth (Doubleday, 1988) documents the recurrence of patterns of myth, symbol, and ritual through all human cultures.

Driver, Tom. The Magic of Ritual (Harper San Francisco, 1991) argues that the types of rituals needed for human culture are lacking in contemporary society. (Republished by Westview Press in 1998 as Liberating Rites.)

Eliade, Mircea. The Sacred and the Profane (Harcourt, Brace and World, 1959) is a good introduction to Eliade's work and to the notions of sacred space and time.

Grainger, Roger. The Language of the Rite (Darton, Longman and Todd, 1974) is an academic but readable introduction to the nature and function of ritual in culture and religion.

Hatchett, Marion. Sanctifying Life, Time and Space (Seabury Press, 1976) is an anthropological treatment of Christian rites and other sacraments from the earliest centuries to the present.

Lane, Dermot. The Experience of God (Paulist Press, 1981) examines the relationship between religious experience and doing theology.

Mitchell, Leonel. The Meaning of Ritual (Morehouse, 1988) is a basic introduction to religious ritual and the cultural background of early Christian practices.

Pottebaum, Gerard. The Rites of People (Pastoral Press, 1992) is an introduction to the function and importance of ritual in people's lives.

Shaughnessy, James, ed. The Roots of Ritual (William P. Eerdmans, 1973) is a good introductory book of readings on ritual and its importance in society and religion.

Smart, Ninian. The Religious Experience of Mankind (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1969) is a study of the major religions of the world which shows how religion and experience are related.

Smith, John E. Experience and God (Oxford University Press, 1968) presents a philosophical discussion of religion as a dimension of human experience.

For Further Study
Religious Experience

Finn, Thomas. From Death to Rebirth (Paulist Press, 1997) explores the process of spiritual conversion in ancient paganism, Judaism, and Christianity.

Johnson, Luke Timothy. Religious Experience in Earliest Christianity (Augsburg Fortress, 1998) finds evidence for a long overlooked experiential basis to New Testament texts.

James, William. The Varieties of Religious Experience (Liguori/Triumph, 1991), written in 1902, is the first and most famous study attempting to describe and classify types of religious experiences.

Otto, Rudolph. The Idea of the Holy (Oxford University Press, 1950), first published in 1917, is the classic introduction to the notion that religious experience is an encounter with the sacred and mysterious.

Proudfoot, Wayne. Religious Experience (University of California Press, 1985) examines a variety of explanations for religious experience from the perspective of the philosophy of religion.

Riley, Bruce. The Psychology of Religious Experience in Its Personal and Institutional Dimensions (Peter Lang, 1988) offers a thorough analysis of religious experiences as genuine human phenomena while favoring a naturalistic explanation of them.

Wach, Joachim. Types of Religious Experience (University of Chicago Press, 1951) discusses religious experience in the context of the history of religions.

Ritual and Symbol

Alexander, Bobby. Victor Turner Revisited (Scholars Press, 1991) reviews Turner's contributions to the understanding of ritual and its ability to effect social change.

Beane, Wendell, and William Doty, eds. Myths, Rites, Symbols: A Mircea Eliade Reader (Harper and Row, 1975) situates Eliade's understanding of sacred space and time within the context of his other works in the history of religions.

Bell, Catherine. Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice (Oxford University Press, 1992) reviews the development of ritual theory within cultural anthropology. Ritual: Perspectives and Dimensions (Oxford University Press, 1997) is a thoroughly systematic treatment of ritual as it is approached in contemporary ritual studies.

Bouyer, Louis. Rite and Man (University of Notre Dame Press, 1963) presents a comparative treatment of religious rituals and sacraments which emphasizes the Catholic tradition.

Brett, Laurence. Redeemed Creation: Sacramentals Today (Michael Glazier, 1984) relates Christian symbols and rituals to the sacramentality of all created things.

Burkert, Walter. Ancient Mystery Cults (Howard University Press, 1987) is a systematic treatment of the features and dynamics of mystery religions rather than a descriptive exposition of each of them.

Campbell, Joseph. Historical Atlas of World Mythology (Harper and Row, 1989), lavishly illustrates the connections between symbolic myths and rituals in primal cultures.

Caron, Charlotte. To Make and Make Again (Crossroad, 1993) presents Christian feminist thinking as it arises out of reflection on group ritual.

Doty, William. Mythography: The Study of Myths and Rituals (University of Alabama Press, 1986) is an excellent and thorough introduction to the many ways that scholars examine and explain myths and rituals.

Eliade, Mircea. Rites and Symbols of Initiation (Harper and Row, 1958) reviews initiation practices from primitive religions through early Christianity.

Fawcett, Thomas. The Symbolic Language of Religion (Augsburg Publishing House, 1971) is a clearly written and thorough examination of religious symbols, how they originate, and how they function in Christianity and other religions.

Grimes, Ronald. Beginnings in Ritual Studies (University Press of America, 1982) is a collection of early essays by the pioneer of contemporary ritual studies. Reading, Writing, and Ritualizing (Pastoral Press, 1993) is a collection of later essays by the same person.

Holm, Jean, and John Bowker, eds. Rites of Passage (Pinter Publishers, 1994) studies transition rituals in Christianity and seven other religions. Worship (Pinter Publishers, 1995) looks at private and public practices in Christianity and seven other religions.

James, E. O. Christian Myth and Ritual (Meridian Books, 1965) is an early attempt, first published in 1933, to relate Christian practices to those of other religions.

Lang, Bernhard. Sacred Games (Yale University Press, 1997) connects six prominent patterns of Christian worship with their Christian and pre-Christian precedents.

McCarthy, Scott. Creation Liturgy (Resource Publications, 1987) shows how basic concepts such as sacred space and time can be used to develop new holistic rituals.

Meyer, Marvin, ed. The Ancient Mysteries (Harper and Row, 1987) is a collection of ancient texts from and about the mystery religions of the ancient Mediterranean world, with explanatory introductions.

Rees, Elizabeth. Christian Symbols, Ancient Roots (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 1992) compares symbolic images and actions in Christianity with those in ancient religions.

Segal, Robert, ed. The Myth and Ritual Theory (Blackwell Publishers, 1998) is a historical anthology of articles attempting to explain the relationship between myth and ritual.

Van Gennep, Arnold. The Rites of Passage (University of Chicago Press, 1960), originally written in 1908, is a classic study of religious rituals.