Critical Approaches to Early Christianity7-The Tradition and Innovation of Rituals in the Didache

One reason why the Didache is an important text is that it contains an unusual amount of detail regarding ritual prescriptions. This monograph provides the only systematic treatment of these prescriptions: almsgiving, baptism, fasting, prayer, eucharist, first-fruits, and purification/confession. Each prescription is examined within the dialectic of tradition and innovation as well as the phenomenon of ritual change. Contrary to common perception, effective traditions are innovative and successful innovations are traditional. This study also draws upon select concepts such as interrituality and ritual modification/transformation, while conducting “triadic”/“weak” comparisons with prior and contemporaneous practices of Second Temple Judaism and the Graeco-Roman world. As a result, the monograph outlines the nuanced ways in which these ritual prescriptions are both traditional and innovative.