ABSTRACT
Traditions including religious traditions are livingly encountered, in myriad particular people and particular lives. If someone speaks of performances of a religious faith, we are liable to think of 'dramatic' and perhaps 'artistic' performances: of liturgies, songs and music, painting and architecture. Christianity is one of the faith-traditions for which this can indeed be done. Christian traditions have sought to limit, and to control, variation of their traditions, in explicit and deliberate ways. Christian reactions to the ever-present variation and plurality in Christian traditions have varied greatly. Those who carry their religious traditions into other cultures, and perform their faiths there, become aware of the need to adapt the tradition they live to the culture: to 'inculturate'. Cultural diversities and variations are everywhere, not just 'abroad', or between broadly brushed culture-families.
