The Magic of Ritual: Our Need for Liberating Rites That Transform Our Lives and Our Communities

This book evokes the need for contemporary rituals that give people's lives meaning and value. As both a theologian and a theatre critic, the author became increasingly convinced that the chronic boredom and impotency of traditional church services, modern theatre performances, everyday rights of passage and even political campaigns were leaving a dangerous void that had to be filled with poor substitutes. He shows that the rituals of mainstream religion for the most part lack any power of real transformation, and puts the case that to be fully alive is to participate in the power of ritual.