‘Rites of Passage’ and the Writing of Church History: Reflections upon our Craft in the Aftermath of van Gennep

Van Gennep's work on rites of passage can be viewed as part the rise anthropology in period prior to First World War, and has been very influential conceptually practice churches ever since. This article examines how his own historical work, taking baptism an example a rite passage, compares with church history at time. It then seeks assess van assumptions comparison about past used writing today, acknowledging that turn plurality – uniformity doctrines, rituals texts is subsequent diversity recent scholarship several respects anticipated by Gennep.