Christian ritual grew out of Jewish ritual-whether the Jewish table rites that provided the setting for Jesus' announcement of his self-sacrifice in what became the Christian Eucharist, or the Jewish ritual of proselyte baptism. Graeco-Roman ritual contributed much of the liturgical ceremony that developed as Christianity was transformed from a persecuted Jewish sect to the cultural center of medieval Europe.
Ritual in its most general sense refers to an agreed-upon pattern of action....
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