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Examines particular rituals (social and religious) as a special kind of cultural performance or interaction in a wide variety of traditions and locations.
In Religious and Social Ritual, ten scholars examine particular rituals as a special kind of cultural performance or interaction in a wide variety of traditions and locations. In so doing, they surface timely theoretical and methodological issues and engage fundamental questions such as how and why these performances and interactions do what they do. Each investigation is conducted with careful attention to cultural, cross-cultural, social, and contextual factors that make it possible to enter into the ritual participant's world and worldview. Moreover, these essays take seriously the interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary emphasis of ritual studies and incorporate the historical, methodological, and autobiographical situations of their authors in responsible and graceful ways. For scholars, teachers, and students of ritual in a variety of settings, Religious and Social Ritual provides both significant scholarship and an invitation to further conversation about one of the most important topics in the contemporary study of religion and culture.
"This is a very timely work in a field of enquiry that has tremendous implications for human praxis. It articulates what many skilled practitioners of liturgical and ritual arts have known for centuries, but it does so within new 'episteme' (Foucault) or new styles of knowing and legitimating. It addresses cultural and religious activities that were wrongly denigrated by those rather conceited 'fathers' (and children) of the European Enlightenment. It will be an excellent text for graduate seminars, for theological courses, for intelligent laypeople in many religious traditions, and for a broad spectrum of courses in any contemporary university engaged in cultural studies." — Robert M. Garvin, State University of New York at Albany
Acknowledgments
Introduction
PART I: COMPARATIVE EXPLORATIONS
Introductory Essay
John Hilary Martin
1 Bringing the Power of the Past into the Present
Murrinh-patha Ritual
John Hilary Martin
2 Power in the Palace
The Investiture of a Javanese Sultan
Clare B. fischer
3 Realizing Inherent Enlightenment
Ritual and Self-Transformation in Shingon Buddhism
Ricahrd K. Payne
4 Ritual Power, Ritual Authority
Configurations and Reconfigurations in the Era of Manifestations
Martha Ellen Stortz
PART II: LITURGICAL EXPLORATIONS
Introductory Essay
Michael B. Aune
5 The Subject of Ritual
Ideology and Experience in Action
Michael B. Aune
6 "Let Every Tongue, by Art Refined, Mingl Its Softest Notes With Mine"
An Exploration of Hymn-Singing Events and Dimensions of Knowing
Rebecca J. Slough
PART III: CLINICAL EXPLORATIONS
Introductory Essay
Valerie DeMarinis
7 Ritual and Psychotherapy
Similarities and Differences
Volney P. Gay
8 A Psychotherapeutic Exploration of Religious Ritual as Mediator of Memory and Meaning
A Clinical Case Presentation of the Therapeutic Efficacy of Incorporating Religious Ritual into Therapy
Valerie DeMarinis
9 The Significance of Ritual in the Case of Joanne
Insights from Depth Psychology
Joseph D. Driskill
10 Western Hospitalization for Surgery a "Rite of Passage"
William R. Noonan
Contributors
Index