Summary: This week Fr. Gabriel discusses the meaning of ritual from a number of angles with insights from Mary Douglas and Ron Grimes, scholars of ritual. He moves from there to discuss the four types of Christian ritual and then launches into a discussion of Ritual Process, an anthropological perspective and study that began with Arnold von Gennep in the early 20th Century and which was greatly enhanced through the work of Victor and Edith Turner. Fr. Gabriel believes that this extensive background material will serve as a useful template when we turn next to the history of catechesis, beginning with the New Testament.
