Christian Rituals & Practice

Recognizing the social meaning of food and meals in Greco-Roman culture and, in particular, the social meaning of idol-food, is an integral part of understanding the impact of Paul’s instructions to the Christian community at Corinth regarding the consumption of idol-food. Shared meals were a central feature of social intercourse in Greco-Roman …

When Rigelhof wrote his award-winning memoir A Blue Boy in a Black Dress, the wall of silence erected by the Roman Catholic hierarchy around the sexual mistreatment of boys remained intact. Nothing Sacred: A Journey Beyond Belief, picks up the threads of his earlier book and sets the revelations of the past decade into the context of his own experi …

Acknowledging that the pastoral prayer is often overlooked and undervalued, and that clergy and lay leaders may be hard-pressed for time to compose a fresh pastoral prayer each week, David Sparks has put together a unique and comprehensive lectionary-based collection of prayers that can be adapted to present circumstances and used in a variety of s …

The home of Martin Luther for thirty six years and seat of the German Reformation, Wittenberg, Germany is now a UNESCO World Heritage site. Wittenberg has long been Protestant sacred space, but since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the city and surrounding region have been developingtheir considerable cultural capital. Today, Wittenberg is hos …

We have been led to believe that rituals are well-behaved and predictable, but they sometimes behave in unpredictable ways, especially when they emerge in unexpected places. However much rites may seem to be at home in churches, temples, mosques, and synagogues, they are not captives of sacredspaces. Rituals appear on television, stare back at the …