ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book focuses on early Christian ritual life which opens up large new possibilities for the study of early Christianity. It examines how conflict, identity formation, relationship with Roman imperial forces in the larger society, gender tension, rejection, and inclusion. Methods and categories for studying early Christian ritual life are derived more or less completely from the larger academic frameworks of ritual theory developed over the past years. Jason T. Lamoreaux's "Ritual Negotiation" focuses on different kinds of community identity within what he sees as two different parties concerned about the rituals of meat in Corinth's markets and homes. The rituals of festive meals and bathing that occurred in Galilee in the first half of the first century also took place in the more urban orbit of Paul through 60 CE.
