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Towards a Ritual Turn in Comparative Theology: Opportunities, Challenges, and Problems*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 January 2018

Marianne Moyaert
Marianne Moyaert*
Affiliation:
VU Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
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Abstract

Comparative theology generally begins from a study of texts, scriptural texts that have been canonized, and commentaries on these texts—as well as philosophical, theological and mystical treatises. Though this textual focus gives us access to some of the most subtle and nuanced reasonings developed in various traditions, I am concerned that this textual focus may limit our understanding of religion, and I am convinced that broadening the scope of comparative theology beyond texts will also contribute to the theological creativity of this approach. I hypothesize that, depending on the sort of source from which we theologize, different questions will come to mind relating to different theological problems. Indeed, turning to material and ritual practices, in addition to textual sources, will reveal aspects of the divine that remain invisible when one stays within the limits of textual study. I do not, in any way, want to turn this into an either/or story in which reading texts is placed over against engaging ritual and material practices. What I envision is a complementarity between textual and ritual comparison, not a privileging of one over the other.

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Articles
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 111 , Issue 1 , January 2018 , pp. 1 - 23
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 2018 

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Footnotes

*

This article is a revised version of the paper I delivered for the annual Comparative Theology Lecture on March 3, 2016 at the Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School. I would like to thank my colleagues Francis Clooney, Kevin Schilbrack, David Cheetham, James Farwell and John Thatamanil for their feedback on earlier versions of the article.

References

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24 Meyer, referring to the work of Engelke and others, rightly notices that “historical and ethnographic studies of Protestant religiosity in everyday life have yielded intriguing insights that question the privileging of ‘inward’ belief above ‘outward’ ritual practices, content above form, texts above objects (Engelke 2007; Engelke and Tomlinson 2009; Keane 2007; Kirsch 2008; Klassen 2010; Luhrman 2012).” See Birgit Meyer, “Mediation and the Genesis of Presence,” 12.

25 Moyaert, Marianne, “Christianizing Judaism? On the Problem of Christian Seder Meals,” in Is there a Judeo-Christian Tradition? A European Perspective (ed. Nathan, Emmanuel and Topolski, Anya; Berlin: De Gruyter, 2016) 137–64Google Scholar.

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34 I also think that by paying attention to material and ritual practices we may also start to read other texts that previously escaped our attentions (e.g., ritual guidelines and liturgical reflections).

35 Emma O'Donnell, Remembering the Future, 11.

36 Though I uphold a particularist understanding of religion, inspired in part by George Lindbeck, I take issue with his claim that religions are untranslatable. See Marianne Moyaert, “The (Un-)Translatability of Religions? Ricoeur's Linguistic Hospitality as Model for Interreligious Dialogue,” Exchange: Journal of Missiological and Ecumenical Research 37 (2008) 337–64.

37 Moyaert, Marianne, In Response to the Religious Other: Ricoeur and the Fragility of Interreligious Encounters (Lanham: Lexington, 2014) chapter 2, 45–68 Google Scholar.

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39 That religion revolves around mediation also holds for those traditions with certain iconoclast tendencies or traditions that emphasize the importance of spirituality as detachment from mediation. Even when religious knowledge and experience is construed as being immediate (e.g., Quakers), religious experience and knowledge are still mediated.

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41 Matters are, of course, more complex than this question suggests, since our various traditions also contain texts that are sensual to the extreme, and in which a craving for the divine, a deep desire to be near the divine is expressed. Many traditions also contain liturgical reasonings in which the nature of certain practices is explained and theologically discussed. But as a question that probes after tendencies, I think it is worthy of consideration.

42 As I argue elsewhere, religious knowledge is in part explicit knowledge, i.e., codified knowledge that can be found in scripture and its commentaries, teachings, and guidelines. This faith can be communicated with relative ease and may even be accessible to outsiders. See Moyaert, Marianne, “Inappropriate Behavior? On the Ritual Core of Religion and its Challenges to Interreligious Hospitality,” JAAR 27 (2014) 1–21 Google Scholar.

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49 Aidan Kavanagh, On Liturgical Theology, 79–80.

50 Ibid., 80.

51 Grimes, Ronald L., The Beginnings of Ritual Studies (rev. ed; Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1995) 1–7 Google Scholar. For example, comparative theologians might ask: What shape is the space? What size is it? To whom is the place oriented? What direction does it face? Do up and down, left and right, back and front have values associated with them? What hierarchies does the space facilitate? What and how many objects are associated with the ritual? What are their physical dimensions, shape, weight, and color? What is done with the object? What happens to it before and after the ritual? At what time does the ritual occur – night, dawn, dusk, midday? What other concurrent activities happen that might supplement or compete with it? On what date did that ritual occur? At what season?

52 Jeannine Hill Fletcher, “When Practice Precedes Theory” (paper presented at the American Academy of Religion, Atlanta, GA, 21 November 2015).

53 Laksana, Bagus, Muslim and Catholic Pilgrimage Practices: Explorations Through Java (Farnham: Ashgate, 2014) 191 Google Scholar.

54 Ibid., 192.

55 Stephanie Paulsell, “Faith Matters: Devotional Difference,” Christian Century (25 January 2012) 35.

56 Emma O'Donnell, Remembering the Future, 182–85.

57 James Farwell, “Not Two with Christ.”

58 In the introduction to their co-edited volume Comparative Theology in the Millennial Classroom: Hybrid Identities, Negotiated Boundaries, Mara Brecht and Reid B. Locklin say that comparative theology follows an exitus-reditus schema (New York: Routledge, 2016).

59 Emma O'Donnell, Remembering the Future, 183.

60 Some comparative theologians who have engaged in practices of cross-riting actually become believers in more than one tradition. Some of them would call themselves dual belongers. See Drew, Rose, Buddhist and Christian: An Exploration of Dual Belonging (Routledge: London, 2011)Google Scholar.

61 Emma O'Donnell, Remembering the Future, 378.

62 James Farwell, “Not Two with Christ” (italics added).

63 Bagus Laksana, Muslim and Catholic Pilgrimage Practices: Explorations through Java. In his recently published research, Bagus Laksana moves in this direction by developing a comparative theological approach grounded in a practice of double visiting in Java. For him pilgrimage became a primary locus to be in the proximity of the religious other as well as of God; indeed it can become a privileged occasion to get to know the religious other while seeking to better understand God.

64 Schilbrack, Kevin, Philosophy and the Study of Religions: A Manifesto (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2014) 36 Google Scholar.

65 Myrvold, Kristina, “Introduction,” in The Death of Sacred Texts: Ritual Disposal and Renovation of Texts in World Religions (ed. Myrvold, Kristina; Farnham: Ashgate, 2010) 1–10, at 1Google Scholar.

66 See Ricoeur, Paul, From Text to Action: Essays in Hermeneutics II (trans. Blamey, Kathleen and Thomspon, John B.; London: Athlone, 1991) 82 Google Scholar.

67 Blackburn, Anne M., “The Text and the World,” in The Cambridge Companion to Religious Studies (ed. Orsi, Robert A.; Cambridge: Cambridge University, 2012) 151–67, at 151Google Scholar.

68 James Farwell, in a mail conversation in which he responds to an earlier draft of this text.

69 See also Moyaert, Marianne, “Religious Pluralism and Eucharistic Hospitality,” Liturgy 31 (2016) 46–56 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

70 Anne M. Blackburn, “The Text and the World,” in The Cambridge Companion to Religious Studies, 151–167, at 153.

71 Ibid., 151.