James Davidson writes:

It would be wrong to see Parker as merely a pedant siever of the rivers of Continental discourse, looking for the true gold amid the fools' sort; he is perfectly capable of writing witty, sharp and thoughtful articles on big, difficult topics such as 'grace' (charis), and in his first book managed to find a sure-footed way through the marshlands of miasma. In this book, typically, he manages to include a clear, clever couple of pages on the theory of ritual, flirting with the suggestion that the question 'how does ritualisation work?' will replace 'what do rituals do?' But he then shruggingly continues with his theme, 'some of the things that ritual can do'… That there are things to argue with in a book which is so rich and full should not be surprising. Parker's carefulness is not mere tentativeness or the dodging of difficult questions. Having thoroughly reviewed the evidence, he is quite prepared to stick his neck out and draw conclusions that many will not expect but which he has decided are necessary. It remains one of the best books I have read on ancient religion and one of the most useful.

(LRB 19 July 2007)

Oxford | hardback 544 pp. |ISBN: 9780199216116