The Practice of the Lord’s Supper in 1 Corinthians 11:17–34 as a Socio-Religious Ritual Failure

Abstract

This paper attempts to understand the abuses of the Lord’s Supper in the Corinthian church (1 Cor 11:17–34) from the perspective of ritual theory. Analyzing the abuses of the Lord’s Supper by using the types of ritual infelicity as described by Ronald L. Grimes, I argue that the practice of the Lord’s Supper by the Corinthians was a socio-religious ritual failure caused by its participants’ inappropriate manners. These inappropriate manners in the ritual performance were both social and religious, namely the stratification of social status and the defilement of the sacred meal, both of which are the results of the imitation of pagan meal practices.