“Human Rites is a compelling, challenging, and convicting read.”
Karen Swallow Prior, author of On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books
“Prepare to rethink everything you thought you knew about religious rituals!”
Tim Mackie, Co-Creator of The Bible Project
“Human Rites is a game changer for the practice of Protestant Christianity.”
Anthony Bradley, author of Ending Overcriminalization and Mass Incarceration
“This superb book is an accessible guide that will help us take our ritual inventory and learn to distinguish between the voice of the serpent and the voice of God.”
Peter Leithart, President, Theopolis Institute
“Whether it is baptism or barbeque, Jewish passover or a church potluck, Johnson shows you how extraordinary our ordinary feats of repetition turn out to be.”
Michael Bird, New Testament scholar, Ridley College, Australia
“I would actually recommend this book to my friends.”
—wife of the author upon reading a rough draft
“… helps us discern the difference between rites that are healthy and life-giving, and those that are not, and challenges us to lean in to the former while forsaking the latter.”
Scott Sauls, pastor, Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville, TN and author of Jesus Outside the Lines and Irresistible Faith
“Delightful, insightful, and engaging from start to finish!”
Jonathan Pennington, New Testament scholar, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Table of Contents
Foreword by David Dark Acknowledgments
Introduction: Know Your Rites
Our Ritualed World
1. More than Mind Games
2. Guided by Voices
Our Ritual Guides
3. Priestly Monkeys Banging on Their Ritual Typewriters
4. All Journeys Have a Secret Destination
When Rites Go Wrong
5. When Rites Go Dark
6. When Rites Go Flimsy
Rituals in Christian Religion
7. Getting Some Distance from Our Sacraments
8. Avoiding the Ethical Rift
9. Riting Our Wrongs
10. Practicing Safe Ritual Improvisation
Coda
Appendix: Examples of a Ritual Inventory Suggested Reading
Dru Johnson 