ABSTRACT
It is regrettable that mainstream, contemporary philosophy of religion has largely ignored the role of ritual in Christian life and practice. Very few standard anthologies today in philosophy of religion contain any material on prayer, the sacraments, meditation, fasting, vigils, religious hymns, icons, pilgrimages, the sacredness of places or times, and so on, and yet these play different roles in much religious life. A neglect of this terrain results in an excessively intellectual or detached portrait of religion.1 In this paper, I seek to articulate some of the virtues involved in Christian ritual and their role in an individual’s religious identity. The integration of human and divine virtues forms part of what is involved in what Christians believe about the Church, namely, that it is the Body of Christ. Due to constraints on space, the position I advance should be read as programmatic, an effort to set the stage for further work.
