Rich Ritual: Forming What We Believe

Since Kent completed the “Ritual Journey” series in May, we’re now offering a series of videos from our first virtual conference on adult faith formation (way back in October 2020) that explores the power of ritual in daily life and the Christian tradition. These excerpts are from our address to open the conference, titled “Treasures Old and New: Putting Vintage Wine in New Wineskins.” The section on ritual in this address was introduced with these words: “Researchers bring their own biases to their work, and … we [Kent & Rhoda] confess that ritual is a ‘beverage of choice’ for both of us.  Ritual studies make some sweeping claims about the power of ritual; I’ll share a few.” This video begins with our first claim: “Ritual has the power to shape what people believe.” Since we’ve just celebrated the Feast of the Holy Trinity this past Sunday, this example from history is appropriate to that feast day. This excerpt is about 2 minutes long.