Susan Karant-Nunn applies the insights of anthrop- ologists to ritual change in the German Reformat- ion, finding that Church and state cooperated in using ritual as an instrument for imposing social discipline.

Introduction 1. Engagement and marriage ceremonies: taming the beast within 2. To beat the Devil: baptism and the conquest of sin 3. Churching, a woman's rite 4. Repentance, confession, and the Lord's Table: separating the divine from the human 5. Banning the dead and ordering the living: the selective retention of catholic practice 6. Ritual change: conclusions