In this qualitative study, written within the study of religion, a video recording of the ritual Tikva is analyzed. The purpose of the study is to investigate spiritual practices and how they are legitimized in a Christian context through ritual analysis. To achieve the purpose a theory of seven elements of rituals is used in the analysis. Another focus of the study is the theoretical concept of interrituality. The study aims to add to the research gap of Tikva. The essay belongs within the fields of religious studies, history of religion and sociology of religion, which are used to investigate theological phenomena. The material is taken from Instagram and consists of a video of 26 minutes, uploaded in September 2021 by a Christian congregation in Sweden. In the video, a woman is leading a Tikva session and demonstrates the movements for the followers. The video is chosen because it shows how the Christian elements are mixed with the spiritual elements.  The result says that the spiritual elements, which are movements looking like yoga poses, in the Tikva ritual are legitimized by being combined with Christian words and a Christian environment. The Christian words are from the Bible. During the ritual the woman shares seven different Bible words, and the place of the ritual is in a church which helps legitimize it as Christian. The scientific meaning of the results is that practices that appears to be spiritual can be legitimized as Christian by means of interrituality consisting of Christian ritual elements of place and language. / Folkkyrkans nya ansikten – levd religion, nyandliga praktiker och teologisk legitimitet.

The purpose of the present thesis is to investigate and interpret the position and meaning of the remnant of oblation (ucchiṣṭa, śeṣa, or vāstu) in the system of classical Vedic mythology and ritual. The inquiries begin by a brief survey of used primary sources, secondary literature and methodology. Afterwards, the terminology used for the leftover is examined together with its mythical connotations found in Brāhmaṇas. The pivot of the thesis is its central part which treats the manipulation of the phenomenon of the leftover in the Vedic ritual literature describing the system of solemn (śrauta) rituals, non-sanguinary oblations (iṣṭi) and ancestor worship (piṇḍapitṛyajña). The last chapter is dedicated to the interpretation of the phenomenon. Following the analysis of primary sources, the thesis claims that the remnant of the offering is not a ritual waste but a creative element of the ritual action. It is interpreted as one of the framing ritual acts which surround the central ritual performance and which are understood as associated with the household, its fertility and continuity. The domestic sphere is also a theme of the myths in which is found the phenomenon of the remnant. Based on the discussion on the mythology and ritual manipulation of the phenomenon, the leftover of the offering is...

The purpose of the present thesis is to analyse a particular ritual treatment, the so-called mouth- washing, appearing in diverse rituals of ancient Mesopotamia and its implications for the status of the ritual object treated in this way. Instead of generalizing the function of this element as known from the eponymous Mouth washing ritual for induction of cult images, this thesis considers its employment in all its attested occurrences. The author assumes a strongly metaphorical character of mouth-washing and analyses the concept of purity underlying it. Its shifting significance in different rituals is observed and a typology of these is outlined. A following case study is devoted to the Ritual for covering a kettledrum. A close examination of the sources reveals a possible development of the tradition as well as the ritual's interconnectedness with the Mouth washing ritual. This relation is treated as a case of interrituality, a concept introduced by Burkhard Gladigow. The divine status of the kettledrum is achieved through the ritual for its covering which intentionally employs elements used in the ritual induction of cult images. A special emphasis laid on the kettledrum's status in Seleucid Uruk corresponds with wider socio-historical changes. Methodologically, the offered interpretation rests...