Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book represents an attempt to counteract the undervaluing of ritual by placing it front and center as it considers early Christian life. It discusses the ancient Judean and Christian means of honoring God in the wide spectrum of ways the ancients honored the divine by identifying the common elements among them. The book introduces scholarship about breathing practices across several cultures as a basis for assessing the deeply emotional expression of intimacy with the divine captured in the phrase "Abba, Father". It considers Christian funerary iconography in the context of Roman commemorative artifacts and practices: ancestral masks and busts, funerary portraiture, and funerary rituals such as festivals. The book explores occurrences of ritual transgression across several cultures and in various historical settings as a way of determining what motivated it.