Myth and Ritual Approach

Method

1. Accepts literary forms.
2. Accepts royal ideology.
3. Reconstructs a New Year Festival much closer to the Babylonian akitu festival. Here the king, as a manifestation of the divine, functions ritualistically in mythical drama. Components of ritual:
   1. Death and resurrection: king represents the annual death and resurrection of the deity corresponding to the cycle of nature.
   2. Creation: king, representing God, recites the story of God’s victory over the forces of chaos.
   3. Ritual combat: cries of distress of the psalmist-king, along with tension with enemies, are liturgical accompaniments for a dramatic sham fight.
   4. Sacred Marriage: king, as representative of the deity entered into a dramatic nuptial union with the representative of a female divinity to insure the fertility of the land.
   5. Triumphal procession: king leads triumphal procession to the temple to symbolize the annual enthronement of deity in his proper home.

Scholars

Men: S. H. Hooke, Engnell, Guthrie, A. R. Johnson, Oesterley, Ringgren, Widengren, John Eaton.