Above, we emphasized the importance of seeing what might appear to be thin practices (such as shopping at the mall, attending a football game, or taking part in “frosh week” at university) as thick practices that are identity-forming and telos-laden. We need then to take that recognition one step further and recognize these thick practices as liturgical in order to appreciate their religious nature. Such ritual forces of culture are not satisfied with being merely mundane; embedded in them is a sense of what ultimately matters (compare Phil. 1:10).
