Ritual

1
Ritual

• The Sacred Quest, chap. 5

2
Where do you see ritual today?

• Non-religious examples
• Sports players, fans
• Patriotism
• Other?
• Religious examples
• Wat
• Islam video
• Catholic Mass

3
What is ritual?

• Bodily pattern of actions, which is repeated
• Human being is both body and spirit spirituality
  includes both
• making faith visible (p. 87)
• Symbol of faith, just like language
• Rituals are ways of entering the realm of the
  sacred (p. 79)
• Mark out time, space, deeper beliefs
• Can act out a story
• Forms community
• Forms self-understanding

4
Types of ritual

• Rites of passage
• Birth circumcision, baptism
• Initiation Bar/bat mitzvah, confirmation
• Mourning and death
• Temporal rites and celebrations
• Seasons, harvest
• Christian liturgical year (Advent, Christmas,
  Ordinary Time, Lent, Easter, Pentecost)

5
Religious meaning of ritual

• Commemorate stories, people, events, ideas
• Adoration worship
• Acknowledges sovereignty of the sacred
• Thanksgiving
• Goodness of world is a gift from the sacred
• Petition asking for aid
• Penance/Purification

6
Problems of ritual

• Ritual without meaning empty gesture
• Reaction lose rituals, focus on feelings and
  moral reform
• Ritual as exercise of power superstition