ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book aims to provide the deep human longing for ritual and to interpret it in the light of our physical, social, political, sexual, moral, aesthetic, and religious existence. It attempts to understand why, after all, we human beings are forever doing rituals and shows that rituals' power to do good is indispensable. The book also aims to combine anthropological resources with moral and theological advocacy. The close association between religion and ritual is one of those often taken-for-granted subjects that needs to be asked about. Rituals are like works of art in that no correlation exists between their power and their morality, and yet a society can scarcely exist, let alone be good, without fostering their growth. Anthropology has discovered not only the prevalence of ritual in all societies but also its intimate linkage to social process.
