Andrea Grillo INTAMS review | Volume 16 | Issue 2 | Autum 2010 | Pages 174 > 183 Riti familiari e riti ecclesiali: Prospettive antropologiche e teologiche di relazione Family Rites and Ecclesial Rites: Anthropological and Theological Perspectives on Their Relationship (summary) The article discusses how the recent interest in rituality may help to redefine both the profile of the family and of the church. The objective is to develop a theory of the “domestic church” that is informed by two models of family life that are diverse but compatible: the domestic family and the ecclesial community. In this way, the paper undertakes to clarify the ritual investment that already exists in family life – and likewise in the church – in order to uncover the anthropological foundation of explicitly religious rites and thus to give them back their theological richness. The author first points out that rites are of a logic other than concept/value. If a concept is the minimum necessary for thinking or appreciating something, than rite is the gratuitous maximum to be able to truly encounter and meet it. From here, a process of mutual learning for family and church alike can be envisaged. Since family rituals free from overly abstract presumptions, the church the one side has to learn from the way the family shapes and ritualizes life in its various dimensions, including its characteristic actions and the way it deals with time and space. Thus, the liturgy needs to relearn the tangibility of touch, of smell, of taste, of hearing, and of sight. The ritual practice of the church, on the other side, frees from the danger of a ritual self-referentiality without transcendence. Therefore, families need to ask the wisdom of the liturgical tradition to illuminate from above the bursting vitality of relationship and family rituals. This intertwining is exactly the strong and fragile point of the relationship between family and liturgy. Andrea Grillo, nato a Savono nel 1961, a studiato giurisprudenzia, filosofia e teologia. Dal 1994 è docente di teologia (sacramentaria e liturgica) presso il Pontificio Ateneo S. Anselmo in Roma e presso l'Istituto di Liturgia Pastorale della Abbazia di S. Giustina in Padova. Dal 2007 insegna anche come professore invitato nella Facoltà Teologica di Lugano (CH) e nella Facoltà Teologica della Pontificia Università Gregoriana. E’ autore di diverse pubblicazioni in campo teologico e filosofico, tra cui Teologia fondamentale e liturgia: Il rapporto tra immediatezza e mediazione nella riflessione teologica, Padova: Messaggero-Abbazia di S. Giustina, 1995; Guida laica per tornare a messa: Dal precetto alla libertà, Cinisello B.: San Paolo, 1997; Introduzione alla teologia liturgica: Approccio teorico alla liturgia e ai sacramenti cristiani, Padova: EMP, 1999; Il rinnovamento liturgico tra prima e seconda svolta antropologica: Il presupposto rituale nell'epoca del postmoderno, Roma: Edizioni Vivere In, 2004; Grazia visibile, grazia vivibile: Teologia dei sacramenti "in genere ritus", Padova, EMP-Abbazia S. Giustina, 2008.