In her new book, Catherine Bell offers a practical introduction to ritual and its study, presenting comprehensive overviews of the most influential theories of religion and ritual, the major categories of ritual activity, and the key debates that have shaped our interest in ritual. Instead of approaching ritual as a clear-cut and timeless object of scrutiny, Bell focuses on how a variety of definitions and constructed understandings of ritual have emerged and changed over time. Throughout, Bell develops the position that ritual activity appears to us today as a complex social medium, a cultural construction of tradition, exigency, and self-expression that is capable of playing a wide variety of roles and communicating a rich density of meanings.