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There is good reason to introduce the cultural-anthropological notion of ritual into practical theology. As we have shown elsewhere¹,t he notion forces the researcher who uses the notion to be constantlya ware,n ot onlyo fh is or her own cultural roots,b ut alsoo ft he anthropological and cultural contextsi nw hich the rituals he or she investigatesa re performed. 1.1 Rituala nd itsC ultural and Anthropological Context The notionofritual finds its origin in cultural anthropologyrather thanin(practical) theology. It is, however,o bvious that ar eligion without rituals is not conceivable. Burnt paper offeringsi nC hinese ancestral worship, the hajj to Mecca in Islam,t he Passover Sederi nJ ewish religion, the Eucharist or the HolyS upperi nC hristianity, they are just as many rituals, even though each religion still has separate indications for those rituals. Since this handbook examines religious practices related to specific culturalcontexts and positions, the cultural-anthropological notion of ritual presents itself as av ery suitable one. Ritual is indeed determined by its anthropological and culturalc ontext,a nd this also holds true for religious ritual. That does not exclude that denominational, ecclesiological, and theological notions also playarole in the design of religious ritual, but that is not the primary focus of this chapter.  This chapterisbased on and partlytakenoverfromBarnard, Marcel, Johan Cilliers and Cas J. Wepener.2014. Worship in the NetworkCulture. Liturgical Ritual Studies.Fields and Methods,Concepts and Metaphors. Liturgia Condenda 28.L euven/Paris /W alpole: Peeters. The article therefore does not pretendt oo ffer original research. OpenAccess. ©2 022M arcel Barnard, Johan Cilliers and CasW epener,p ublished by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative CommonsA ttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.