Historical Origins And Development Of Ritual In Worship

Christian ritual grew out of Jewish ritual—whether the Jewish table rites that provided the setting for Jesus' announcement of his self-sacrifice in what became the Christian Eucharist, or the Jewish ritual of proselyte baptism. Graeco-Roman ritual contributed much of the liturgical ceremony that developed as Christianity was transformed from a persecuted Jewish sect to the cultural center of medieval Europe.

Ritual in its most general sense refers to an agreed-upon pattern of action. Religious ritual is a corporate symbolic activity in which people engage when they worship. It has been a part of all human cultures. The earliest actual evidence for religious ritual dates from the third interglacial period (180,000 to 120,000 b.c.) and was left by prehistoric hunters of cave bears, who apparently dedicated the brain and the bone marrow of their kill to the dispenser of hunting fortune. The famous Ice Age cave paintings of large animals (approximately 10,000 b.c.) are generally believed to be evidence of ritual activity in connection with hunting. There are two major types of such activity: (1) sacrifice, in which the death of the animal is encompassed within a ritual in which its life is returned to the divine dispenser of hunting fortune, and permission is given to the hunting community to eat the meat; and (2) initiation, in which prospective hunters are taught the skills and lore they will need to become actual hunters, and the bonds uniting them into a single hunting band are established and nurtured. Such rituals exist even today among so-called primitive peoples. The Roots of Christian Ritual Christian ritual is historically rooted in Jewish ritual. In first-century Judaism there was an established sacrificial cultus in the Jerusalem temple. Jewish sacrifice was similar in form to Hellenistic Greek sacrifice. In both, an animal (or other offering) was offered to the deity. The animal was killed. Portions were burned upon the altar (the god's portion) and the rest was eaten in a festive meal by the worshipers. The burning of incense was often a part of these rituals. As the smoke of the incense rose to heaven, so the prayers of the worshipers were believed to rise (Psalm 141:2). Incense also served the practical purpose of covering the smell of the burning meat. Acts of ritual sacrifice were seen by Christians as fulfilled and abolished by the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ, but the theology of sacrifice continued to influence both Christian worship and theology. In 1 Corinthians 5:7, Paul identifies Christ with the pesach, the paschal lamb, the sacrifice eaten by the participants as the central feature of the Passover meal. More significant for Christian ritual was the Jewish domestic celebration of a ritual common meal at festivals and on the Sabbaths. From its roots in the Jewish religious meal, itself a descendant of the primitive sacrificial meals, the Christian Eucharist, or Lord's Supper, developed. According to the New Testament accounts (Mark 14:22–25; Matt. 26:26–29; Luke 22:15–20; 1 Cor. 11:23–26), Jesus made use of two standard elements of the Jewish ritual meal in instituting the Christian Eucharist: the blessing and breaking of bread at the beginning of the meal, and the thanksgiving over a cup of wine at its close. He identified these elements with his body and blood. Probably in the late first or early second century, these ritual actions were separated from the actual meal, which Christians continued to celebrate for centuries under the name of agape, and they were joined to a service of prayer and Bible reading apparently derived from the worship of the synagogue. The Christian rite of baptism is derived from the baptism of John the Baptist and probably from the Jewish ritual of proselyte baptism. This began as a ceremonial purification for converts of both sexes, since they had previously not observed the Jewish laws of ritual cleanliness. According to the Talmud, the proselyte emerged from the water a newborn babe and began a new life within the covenant. The ritual model for Christian baptism became the Gospel accounts of the baptism of Jesus (Mark 1:9–11 and parallels). The candidate went down into the water and was immersed while responding to questions concerning his or her belief in the triune God. Since Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit as he emerged from the water, the new Christian was anointed with the spiritual oil called chrism (or myron), symbolizing the anointing with the Spirit and participation in the Christ, the Anointed One. Just as Jesus was proclaimed to be the Son of God by the voice of the Father, the neophyte was proclaimed to be the child of God by adoption and grace by the bishop or elder, usually accompanied by the laying of hands on the new Christian. While the rituals of Christian initiation derive from Jewish sources, the terminology of the pagan mystery religions was often used to explain the rites to converts, as preachers sought to use ideas and terms familiar to the converts as a basis for teaching Christian faith and practice in the fourth century, the great period of conversion from paganism. The mysteries were the great personal religious rituals of the Hellenistic world. Odo Casel's classic definition is: "?The mystery is a sacred ritual action in which a saving deed is made present through the rite; the congregation, by performing the rite, take part in the saving act, and thereby win salvation?" (Odo Casel, The Mystery of Christian Worship and Other Writings [Westminster, Md.: Newman Press, 1962], 54). The one clear borrowing of Christianity from the mysteries was the tradition of the disciplina arcani, keeping the content of Christian rituals secret from unbelievers. Thus, the principal Christian ritual actions of washing in water, eating bread, and drinking wine, derive from Jewish ritual practice, with which both Jesus and the apostolic church were familiar. Ultimately, these rituals go back to the primitive rituals of initiation and the common meal. Secondary Ritual Actions Over the centuries, Christianity has acquired a number of secondary ritual practices, many of which are dependent upon the cultural contexts in which Christianity has spread. The oldest rituals go back to the first-century church and are derived from the traditions of synagogue and family worship and personal prayer. These traditions include the reading aloud of passages from the Scripture according to a fixed lectionary, responsive prayer between the presider and congregation, and the changing of prayers. The kiss of peace was exchanged by members of the first-century church. It is mentioned four times in the Pauline corpus (Rom. 16:16; 1 Cor. 16:20; 2 Cor. 13:12; 1 Thess. 5:26). Paul assumed that the readers were accustomed to its use. By the second century, we hear of the newly baptized being greeted by the kiss of peace, and are told that they were not permitted to exchange it with anyone before their baptism. In societies such as our own in which a kiss is not our customary greeting, various attempts have been made to substitute handshakes, bows, formal embraces, or hugs. The adoption of Christianity as the religion of the Roman Empire introduced a number of secondary ceremonies clearly grounded in Roman customs. Christian bishops were given the rank of magistrates by the emperor, and their use of purple to signify this fact is a trivial, though long-lasting trace of this heritage. As the Gospel book was brought to the ambo (a lectern or pulpit) for the reading of the Gospel, burning torches and incense were carried before it to symbolize the living presence of Christ in the midst of the faithful, and the people stood to honor the presence of the Word of God. These actions were the external signs associated with the movement of the Roman emperor through the streets of the city. Later, other aspects of court ceremonial were introduced into Western Christian worship. The altar was compared to the throne of the earthly emperor, and reverences, such as genuflections and prostrations, which were expected in the presence of the imperial majesty, were adopted as appropriate to the presence of the heavenly King. Eastern churches placed the mosaics of the Pantokrator (Christ enthroned in glory, wearing the robes of the Byzantine emperor) high on the wall of the apse, where it dominated worship. The beauty of the buildings and of the worship itself, with its use of Byzantine court ceremonial, came to symbolize the glory of God. Later, for those living in Moslem lands, participation in worship was both a reminder of the glory that had been theirs in Constantinople and a foretaste of the glory of the heavenly realm, of which the church building was the visible symbol. Much of this secondary ritual has been abandoned by Christians who no longer live in those cultures. The conviction that Christianity is a universal faith prompts Christians to believe that they must be able to find appropriate expression for their faith in any human culture, and attempts are frequently made to inculturate Christian worship into the many cultures in which it exists.