Altar is a raised place or object that serves as the central point of religious worship. An altar may be as simple as a mound of earth or as elaborate as a carved stone table. Altars may be located in the open air, in homes, or in buildings of public worship. The word altar probably comes from the Latin word altus, which means high place.
The ancient Greeks, Romans, and Israelites used altars to burn incense and to sacrifice animals or other offerings to a god or gods. Christians adopted the idea of an altar for sacrificial worship by the A.D. 100’s. By the Middle Ages, Christian altars had been moved from a more central position in the church to the back wall. The priest stood at the altar, with his back to the worshipers. In 1964, the Roman Catholic Church issued a directive that altars be moved away from the back wall of the church so that the priest could face the congregation. In Eastern Orthodox Churches, the altar is behind a screen called an iconostasis. In the 1500’s, many Protestants converted altars into simple tables on which the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is celebrated.
