The emergence of cognitive science over the past thirty years has stimulated new approaches to traditional problems and materials in well-established disciplines. Those approaches have generated new insights and reinvigorated aspirations for theories in the sciences of the socio-cultural (about the structures and uses of symbols and the cognitive processes underlying them) that are both more systematic and more accountable empirically than the recently available alternatives. Without rejecting interpretive proposals, projects in both the cognitive science of religion and in cognitive (...) archaeology seek to redress imbalances within those disciplines favoring the interpretive over the explanatory. (See Lawson and McCauley, 1990 and Renfrew, 1994a, respectively.) Both projects aim to reinvigorate scientific aspirations without reviving any sort of scientistic or explanatory exclusivism. Both have arisen, in part, in response to the science-bashing crusades that have enjoyed such prominence in both disciplines over the past twenty years. With the exception, perhaps, of linguistics, the influence of cognitive science has been as notable in archaeology and religious studies as it has been in any discipline in contemporary intellectual life. In both disciplines new sub-fields have begun to thrive, which take theoretical inspiration from cognitive science and, at least sometimes, deploy its findings and, in the case of the cognitive science of religion, even its methods in the course of testing their theories. This paper contains three sections. The first provides a framework for thinking about the constituents of culture as a means both for situating ritual and for considering its accessibility to cognitive and archaeological analysis. The second section outlines our theory of religious ritual competence and the ritual form hypothesis. The final section reviews the theory=s predictions about an assortment of properties of both individual religious rituals and religious ritual systems. It includes occasional speculations about some of the theory=s possible implications for some archaeological matters. A word of caution before we begin .. (shrink)

Reading Religious Ritual with Ricoeur extends Ricœur’s philosophical treatment of religion beyond an analysis of mythic symbols and the biblical texts to religious ritual practices. It also applies his broader hermeneutic lens to liturgical actions and practices in regard to religious truth, language, imagination, and identity.

This essay seeks to construct an understanding of the relationship between religious ritual and morality by means of an exploration of disparate and undeveloped suggestions in the writings of Immanuel Kant. The position worked out sees ritual as the effort to use complex symbolic and group activity for the purpose of expressing and vivifying the fundamental moral conceptions that underlie religious belief. In a closing discussion, early Christian baptism is used to illustrate and partly to substantiate this Kantian (...) moral account of religious ritual. (shrink)

Theorizing about religious ritual systems from a cognitive viewpoint involves (1) modeling cognitive processes and their products and (2) demonstrating their influence on religious behavior. Particularly important for such an approach to the study of religious ritual is the modeling of participants' representations of ritual form. In pursuit of that goal, we presented in Rethinking Religion a theory of religious ritual form that involved two commitments. The theory’s first commitment is that the cognitive apparatus for the (...) representation of action in general is the same system deployed for the representation of religious ritual form. The differences between everyday action and religious ritual action turn out to be fairly minor from the standpoint of their cognitive representation. This system for the representation of action includes representations of agents. Whether we focus on an everyday action such as closing a door or a ritual action such as initiating a person into a religious group, our understanding of these forms of behavior as actions at all turns critically on recognizing agents. The theory's second crucial commitment (1990, p. 61) is that the roles of culturally postulated superhuman agents (CPS-agents hereafter) in participants' representations of religious rituals will prove pivotal in accounting for a wide variety of those rituals' properties. On our view religious ritual systems typically involve presumptions about CPS-agents. This theoretical commitment is orthogonal to the pervasive assumption throughout the study of religion that only meanings matter. By contrast, we hold that other things matter too (specifically, cognitive representations of religious ritual form). Large conflicts lurk behind the previous sentences but we cannot adequately address them here. For now we will only identify two of the most fundamental and comment on them briefly. First, amazingly (by our lights anyway), our claim that (conceptual) commitments to the existence of CPS-agents is the most important recurrent feature of religion across cultures is quite controversial.. (shrink)

An ethnographic approach to the South Indian festival Ayudha Puja reveals that the celebration plays a role in the construction of scientific communities. Ayudha Puja has the ability to absorb westerners, non-Hindus, and non-Brahmins into Indian science and engineering communities and is thus widely practiced in South Indian industry and academia. The practice of Ayudha Puja thus parallels what M. N. Srinivas labels “Sanskritization.” Within India, the process of Sanskritization refers to the adoption of high-caste habits and diet by upwardly (...) mobile lower-caste communities. While not actually an example of Sanskritization, participation in Ayudha Puja is analogous to that process: by joining a Hindu rite within the scientific and professional workspace, outsiders become part of local laboratory, department, or office culture. Such practices reveal the need for scholars to investigate scientific community building outside the domain of how scientists reveal new facts about the world. (shrink)

In this article, we explore the learning of newcomers in a religious community through a micro-sociological approach, making use of Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger’s (1991) notion of “legitimate peripheral participation” to conceptualize initial stages of inclusion and involvement in social practice. Our case study concerns Orthodox Christianity and is based on material gathered through fieldwork in a course targeting potential new members organized by a Finnish Orthodox parish. In the analysis, we inquire into how beginners learn skilful participation (...) in Orthodox liturgical life, and specifically embodied ritual conduct. This learning takes place primarily through participation in real-life divine services. The article highlights challenges faced by beginners in acquiring the embodied repertoire of Orthodox ritual, including adapting to the artistic use of ritual gestures, and negotiating the meanings produced through them. Furthermore, it also illustrates how nuanced dynamics between newcomers and old-timers influence the learning process. (shrink)

The aim of this study is to examine the attitudes of people who lost their relatives due to the earthquake towards the mourning process and the role of religious rituals in combating the stressful situation caused by this loss. In the study in which the qualitative research method was adopted, a case study design was also adopted. In the study where the criterion sampling technique was used, a total of 12 participants who experienced loss due to the earthquake (...) were included in the study. The participants stated that this loss was much more severe than a normal loss due to factors such as not being able to meet for the last time, not being able to reach the lost relative and the lack of religious rituals. Accordingly, it was observed that individuals who used positive religious coping styles experienced an increase in spirituality meaning of life and showed signs of post-traumatic growth, such as positive social relationships. On the other hand, most of the individuals who adopted negative religious coping styles experienced more feelings of helplessness and meaninglessness, had more difficulty in accepting the death, withdrew from social relationships, and showed more intense symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). (shrink)

Society is a person in its social relations. If the term "society" is used to determine reality as a system of interconnections and relationships between people, then its social system appears as an entity in which human societies are diverse in character and social role. Social life is expressed in the grouping of members of society on the basis of certain objectively predetermined types of relations between them. The integrity and unity of religious communities, their qualitative specificity determines the (...) content of the doctrine and cult, on which they grow. (shrink)

This paper was made as part of a wider research I made about rituals and their meaning and roles they are playing in the religious system of thinking. The way they are thought, displayed, precisely followed as instructed and believed, makes them a powerful social act that has been always provided by any religion, and also a tool for religion to make the human society what it is today. After I speak about what is a ritual and its (...) religious content in general, I am enumerating roles and functions of play and theatre in particular have, both for profane and religious purpose. Do we still use play/games as adults because they are rewarding, they give us pleasure? They are used as means of relaxation, or for continuing the age of childhood; or it is in our nature to play games in everything we do? In this paper I have emphasized play as adaptive potentiation or adaptive variability useful both in therapy, as in religious ceremony. The relation and comparison of rituals with play is due to the fact that playing is the most engaging behavior performed by man and animals, and it can be found as foundation of almost any ritualist activity. (shrink)

Volume 17, Issue 5, November 2020, Page 527-544.

This study explores the religious dimensions of Thai Buddhism through the interplay between ritual and art, and its impact on Thai identity. It investigates how art underpins Thai Buddhist rituals by examining the nature and role of prominent ritual and religious practices. The research focuses on temple art and artistic elements such as murals, statues, and other features that transform ritual spaces into sacred zones during significant festivals like Visakha Bucha and Makha Bucha. Additionally, it includes an (...) analysis of sand mandalas, which symbolize temporality and engage participants in their creation and observation. The study also addresses the ethnoreligious aspects of Thai folk music (Luk Thung) and dance-drama (Khon), highlighting their roles in reinforcing Buddhist institutions and societal cohesion. By examining case studies such as Loy Krathong and the Phuket Vegetarian Festival, the study demonstrates how religious and cultural performances shape Thai identity. Ultimately, the research asserts that Thai Buddhist art functions as both a symbol of religious principles and an active medium for religious representation and performance, thereby affirming and enacting Thai national and sacred identity. (shrink)

Religion was always perceived as the threshold between two worlds. It is a space where individuals are supposed to be connected to a different reality through the mediating power of a particlular ritual, at a specific time and in a certain space. A new space of appearance is the expected outcome along with this relocation from profane to sacred. Religious broadcasting could be conceptualized as a visual and acoustic “altar”. The ritual, space and time are the pillars of this (...) audio-visual “cathedral” the very space that could build the bridge between sacred and profane, and the means for this mediated, symbolic transfer. This paper tries to outline the power of media representation in the context of religious broadcasting that uses ritual and imagination to maintain and negotiate the distinction between sacred and profane and to generate alternative narratives. In this regard, the religious broadcasting, presuming the sacerdotal role to represent, mediate and interpret the relationship between sacred and profane is being conditioned by a ritualized medium. As a result, the religious messages could end up as a ritualized mystification that would jeopardize the production of meaning. (shrink)

Rituals are a very important part of daily life, traditions, cultural and religious gatherings and have a significant role on teaching about cultural heritage and social codes. Teaching about religious and cultural rituals have also important effects on personal development, acculturation and social engagement of an individual. Exploring and understanding the personal, cultural and social aspects of rituals is an important purpose of education and especially religious education. Educational drama offers educational environments that students (...) can improve creativity, critical thinking, empathy, communication skills, knowing others and respect to differences. Creative drama offers a suitable learning environment for students to understand social aspects and importance of rituals it allows students to share their previous experiences and to learn from other students. The aim of this article is to determine the effects of creative drama on teaching about religious and cultural rituals in the school context. For this purpose, creative drama sessions on daily prayer in Islam, fasting in Ramadan, religious feasts in Islam, month of Muharrem and Ashoura and Nawruz Festival has been carried out with 16 secondary school students. Research data has been gathered with focus group interviews and analyzed with thematic analysis method via NVIVO program. It is determined that students have reached an understanding about; basic information about rituals, understanding the source of rituals, being eager to participate to the rituals and knowing about others. These findings can be considered as learning outcome of creative drama sessions on cultural and religious rituals. And students have found creative drama sessions are beneficial in regard of active participation, sharing personal experiences and exploring differences. (shrink)

Agents are generally committed to performing actions based on religious beliefs, even when these are not obviously adaptive. What could explain this fact? The cognitivist hypothesis explains this commitment on the basis of internal cognitive mechanisms. But some have noted the importance of taking into consideration the contexts in which religious beliefs are transmitted, such as rituals: the cultural learner commits herself to a given religious belief when she witnesses displays based on that belief in appropriate (...) situations. In this paper, I argue that we can strengthen this insight by focusing on the shared character of the rituals that facilitate religious belief transmission. First, I present the traditional explanatory hypothesis regarding the origins of religious belief. Second, I sketch three objections that put limits to that model’s explanatory power. Third, I explore a hypothesis which accounts for the context of belief transmission and then argue for the necessity of refining it so as to accommodate pertinent explanatory demands. Finally, I present the interactionist model of social cognition as a way to account for the shared character of religious rituals. Keywords: religious belief, religious commitment, social cognition, interactionism, rituals. (shrink)

Religious experiences of the human spirit are implemented, in an inevitable way, due to body-soul connection, at the level of the dynamics of corporeality. Gestures in religious rites are a key issue for the believer who sits in front of the Deity to supplicate and adore. Among the most common religious gestures are kneeling and putting the hands together in a vertical position. Far from being simple positioning and posture without any symbolical meaning, they express intense inner (...) feelings of the human emotionally and mentally directed from the profane dimension towards the endless extensions of the sacredness in a total approach of worship and mystical confession. (shrink)

The paper examines the religious and philosophical concept of the personal daimon in the Greek magical papyri in relation to Greek philosophy and especially to the Neo-Platonist philosophers. Questions to be addressed are: What is the nature of the personal daimon? What is the relationship between the personal daimon and the individual and how is this relationship established in magic? Special emphasis is placed on the role of the magico-theurgic ritual of systasis in the process of establishing the relationship (...) with the personal daimon. Finally, the paper examines the relationship between magic rituals, mysteries and philosophy, focusing on the issue of the internalization of the personal daimon. (shrink)

This commentary argues against the theory that cultural ritual behavior is meaningless or that ritual action is solely a by-product of fear-based precautionary and action-parsing systems. Humans demonstrate the ability to spontaneously change their use of proximate intentions and attribute ultimate intentions to ritual actions that are not dependent upon fear or physical and emotional/mental dysfunction. (Published Online February 8 2007).

Shamanic Healing and Ritual Drama: Health and Medicine in Native North American Religious Traditions. Åke Hultkrantz. New York: Crossroad, 1992. 197 pp. $19.95 (cloth).

Shamanic Healing and Ritual Drama: Health and Medicine in Native North American Religious Traditions. Åke Hultkrantz. New York: Crossroad, 1992. 197 pp. $19.95 (cloth).

It is a cliché that most Greek art was religious in function. Yet our histories of Classical art, having acknowledged this truism, systematically ignore the religious nuances and associations of images while focusing on diverse arthistorical issues from style and form, or patronage and production, to mimesis and aesthetics. In general, the emphasis on naturalism in classical art and its reception has tended to present it as divorced from what is perceived as the overwhelmingly religious nature of (...) post-Constantinian Christian art. The insulation of Greek and Roman art from theological and ritual concerns has been colluded in by most historians of medieval images. Take for instance Ernst Kitzinger's monographic article entitled ‘The Cult of Images in the Age before Iconoclasm’. Despite its title and despite Kitzinger's willingness to situate Christian emperor worship in an antique context, this classic paper contains nothing on the Classical ancestry of magical images, palladia and miracle-working icons in Christian art. There has been the odd valiant exception , but in general it is fair to say that the religiousness of antiquity's religious art is skirted by the art historians and left to the experts on religion. (shrink)

In this paper, I examine intergenerational differences in emic interpretations of various types of ritual references in the religious culture of the Podhale region (Poland), which is known for its lavish celebrations of Catholic holidays and rites of passage. Drawing on Roy Rappaport’s theory of ritual communication, particularly the distinction between self-referential and canonical messages, I analyze Podhale highlanders’ attitudes toward the self-referential messages communicated by ritual participants. The analysis of my respondents’ narratives revealed that a change in attitude (...) toward ritual messages considering individual social status correlates with a change in the conceptualization of the ritual’s reference to its transcendent object. This paper presents this phenomenon through the lens of the basic concepts of Charles Sanders Peirce’s theory of semiosis and demonstrates that some changes in the religious culture of Podhale can be interpreted as changes in the dynamics between the components of the sign. (shrink)

Ritualized behavior, intuitively recognizable by its stereotypy, rigidity, repetition, and apparent lack of rational motivation, is found in a variety of life conditions, customs, and everyday practices: in cultural rituals, whether religious or non-religious; in many children's complicated routines; in the pathology of obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD); in normal adults around certain stages of the life-cycle, birthing in particular. Combining evidence from evolutionary anthropology, neuropsychology and neuroimaging, we propose an explanation of ritualized behavior in terms of an evolved (...) Precaution System geared to the detection of and reaction to inferred threats to fitness. This system, distinct from fear-systems geared to respond to manifest danger, includes a repertoire of clues for potential danger as well as a repertoire of species-typical precautions. In OCD pathology, this system does not supply a negative feedback to the appraisal of potential threats, resulting in doubts about the proper performance of precautions, and repetition of action. Also, anxiety levels focus the attention on low-level gestural units of behavior rather than on the goal-related higher-level units normally used in parsing the action-flow. Normally automatized actions are submitted to cognitive control. This “swamps” working memory, an effect of which is a temporary relief from intrusions but also their long-term strengthening. Normal activation of this Precaution System explains intrusions and ritual behaviors in normal adults. Gradual calibration of the system occurs through childhood rituals. Cultural mimicry of this system's normal input makes cultural rituals attention-grabbing and compelling. A number of empirical predictions follow from this synthetic model. (Published Online February 8 2007) Key Words: childhood ritual; compulsion; event boundaries; evolutionary psychology; obsessive-compulsive disorder; ritual; thought intrusion. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThis paper seeks to problematise and complexify scholarly accounts of contemporary emotional repression in Western contexts by presenting counterevidence in the form of two examples of post-secular collective affectivity and their ritual expressions. It argues that both narratives of emotional repression and expression fail to capture the non-linear complexity of processes of cultural transformation, which have resulted in the simultaneous expression and repression of ritualistic affects that are products of our evolutionary embodied history. Drawing on insights from affect theory, this (...) paper seeks to illustrate how contingent yet nonetheless residual ritualistic affects have become repressed in the nominally secular public sphere in modernity. This has presented certain obstacles to the open communal display of religious ritual, and, as a corollary, the expression of certain religious affects, which have subsequently re-emerged in post-secular ritual spaces that are both publically private and pr... (shrink)

Bringing Ritual to Mind explores the cognitive and psychological foundations of religious ritual systems. Participants must recall their rituals well enough to ensure a sense of continuity across performances, and those rituals must motivate them to transmit and re-perform them. Most religious rituals the world over exploit either high performance frequency or extraordinary emotional stimulation to enhance their recollection. But why do some rituals exploit the first of these variables while others exploit the second? (...) McCauley and Lawson advance the ritual form hypothesis, arguing that participants' cognitive representations of ritual form explain why. Reviewing evidence from cognitive, developmental and social psychology and from cultural anthropology and the history of religions, they utilize dynamical systems tools to explain the recurrent evolutionary trajectories religions exhibit. (shrink)

In this article, I show that women are depicted in the early Confucian texts not primarily as undertaking household duties or nurturing children but rather as partaking in rituals of mourning and ancestor worship. To make the argument, I analyze, besides the more philosophical texts like the Analects and the Mencius, texts known as the “Five Classics,” which describe women in their social roles in much more detail than the former. What women’s participation in rituals reveals, I contend, (...) is that the domestic-political distinction does little to illuminate the philosophical vision offered by the early Confucian texts. Relatedly, while women’s involvement in communal religious rituals has also been noted about early Greece, the political import of such participation is even more pronounced in the Confucian case. Specifically, I show that, by embodying intergenerational continuity, the mourning and ancestor rituals that women partake in are foundational to the Confucian state. (shrink)

Lawson and McCauley have argued that non-cultural regularities in how actions are conceptualized inform and constrain participants' understandings of religious rituals. This theory of ritual competence generates three predictions: 1) People with little or no knowledge of any given ritual system will have intuitions about the potential effectiveness of a ritual given minimal information about the structure of the ritual. 2) The representation of superhuman agency in the action structure will be considered the most important factor contributing to (...) effectiveness. 3) Having an appropriate intentional agent initiate the action will be considered relatively more important than any specific action to be performed. These three predictions were tested in two experiments with 128 North American Protestant college students who rated the probability of various fictitious rituals to be effective in bringing about a specified consequence. Results support Lawson and McCauley's predictions and suggest that expectations regarding ordinary social actions apply to religious rituals. (shrink)

In this article, I develop an understanding of ritual and of sincerity as two ideal-typical modes of framing human action. I focus on the dangers of what I term the sincere model because it is so strongly counter-intuitive to the way we usually understand the world, the moral imperatives of action and the framing of our intersubjective universe. I will begin, however, with some brief remarks on ritual — not as a discrete realm of human endeavor, usually identified with ‘ (...) class='Hi'>religious’ ritual (though inclusive of religious ritual), but rather as a particular modality of understanding action that is essential to the constitution of both social and individual selves and without which a shared world would not be possible. (shrink)

The theological use of the concept of emergence and of philosophical theories known as emergentism, has recently increased in popularity. After a brief introduction, the second section of this article argues that the most philosophically promising version of emergentism is one informed by classical and contemporary pragmatism. The third section describes in some detail the entanglement of facts and values that this form of emergentism implies. The final two sections apply pragmatistic emergentism theologically, with a focus on religious (...) class='Hi'>rituals and, in particular, the ritual washing of Eucharistic vessels. It concludes that pragmatistic emergentism, with its distinctive perspective on the entanglement of facts and values, can help to make philosophical sense of an otherwise unintelligible ritual practice. (shrink)

In this paper, I demonstrate how philosophical insights and empirical research on the use of religious language can be fruitfully combined to tackle issues regarding the ontology of religious collectivities and the agency of group actors. To do so, I introduce a philosophical framework that draws on speech act theory and recent advances in the fields of collective intentionality and social ontology, with particular attention paid to the work of Raimo Tuomela. Against this backdrop, I discuss a brief (...) case study based on my fieldwork among Jehovah’s Witnesses in Switzerland and Germany. In particular, I call attention to the structure of the Witnesses’ ritual interactions and to the types of speech acts that are performed in their congregational settings. I argue that the communicative framework provided by these rituals is particularly suited to the creation of genuine group intentions that cannot be reduced to the private intentions of the individual group members. In conclusion, I argue that most of the language used in religious contexts does not deviate much from everyday language; however, particular ritual settings can elicit performative effects and constitute new social realities that can have a concrete impact on both individuals and religious groups. (shrink)

In the 21st century, discussions on the environment actively intersect with religious discourse, purposefully incorporating religious texts and spiritual perspectives to propose effective solutions for addressing the pressing global environmental crisis. Within this context, this study employs a narrative analysis approach, conducting fifteen semi-structured interviews with students pursuing undergraduate course in science, aged 18–21 years, representing diverse cultural and religious backgrounds. The primary aim is to understand how traditional values embedded in micro-level activities and rituals, drawn (...) from their culturally and religiously diverse backgrounds, significantly contribute to the formation of distinctive household-based value systems that integrated within education can bring about attitudinal changes by developing sensitivity toward the environment. These narratives offer valuable insights into a nuanced understanding of the crucial role that religious/spiritual teachings can play in shaping robust eco-ethics essential for nurturing a sustainable future. The research underscores the interplay of cultural, religious, and ethical dimensions in shaping individual perspectives and actions toward the environment. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThis paper presents a Kierkegaardian critique of Roy A. Rappaport’s classic treatment of religious rituals. It discusses Rappaport’s claim that public and outward acceptance of a religious ritual is sufficient for successfully enacting it – even where such acceptance is devoid of any personal commitment on the participants’ part. To interrogate Rappaport, the paper develops Jonathan Lear’s reading of Kierkegaard and builds on the Danish theologian’s remarks on the Christian sacraments to argue that, pace Rappaport, personal engagement (...) is necessary to the successful enactment of religious rituals. In this sense, I will show with Kierkegaard how inner belief is a necessary pre-requisite for the performance of any religious ritual whereas in Rappaport’s view it is ritual action itself which creates a posteriori the possibility for personal religious faith. (shrink)

Technical achievement in laboratories requires millennia–old ritual formulations; the methodological expectations and presuppositions of scientists stem not only from investigations of the last three centuries but also from the ritual knowledge making that has governed human religion. Laboratory research is a form of human ritual open to interpretation in the manner of religious ritual. The experiments of the laboratory are fact–gathering ventures, but the integration of that knowledge into our general understanding of a universe of information networks is the (...) process of knowledge making, and it is the highest achievement of all rituals, be they religious or scientific. Ritual theory offers insight into the nature of scientific experimentation. (shrink)

This article analyses the Italian philosopher and anthropologist Ernesto De Martino’s The Land of Remorse from a philosophical viewpoint. After having presented the main Demartinian concepts (e.g. ‘presence’ and ‘crisis of presence’) and examined the phenomenon of ‘tarantism’ (that is a magical-religious ritual practiced in southern Italy), the author interprets ‘ritual symbols’ as useful ‘fictions,’ which permit to resolve the problem of ‘indeterminacy’ (that refers to vague objects and unknown events), and rescue the human Self from psychological and existential (...) crisis. (shrink)

ASHÉ: Ritual Poetics in African Diasporic is a collection of interdisciplinary essays contributed by international scholars and practitioners. Having distinguished themselves across such disciplines as Anthropology, Art, Music, Literature, Dance, Philosophy, Religion, and Theology and conjoined to construct a defining approach to the study of Aesthetics throughout the African Diaspora with the Humanities at the core, this collection of essays will break new ground in the study of Black Aesthetics. This book will be of great interest to scholars, practitioners, and (...) students interested in tracing African heritage identities throughout the African Diaspora through close examination of a variety of discourses directly connected to expressive elements of cultural production and religious rituals. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThis article uses Gadamer’s concept of play as a common lens through which both traditional church liturgy and imaginative evangelical practices of engaging with God can be understood. The category of play encompasses processes which exhibit a back-and-forth motion and functions in Gadamer’s aesthetics to describe the relationship between artwork and viewer. Through an aesthetics of play, Gadamer accounts for the presence of truth in art. As I demonstrate in this paper, liturgy displays the playful characteristics of artwork, allowing for (...) a theologically realist interpretation of divine presence. The final part of this paper considers the imaginative evangelical practices described by anthropologist T. M. Luhrmann, which I refer to as God-play. I argue that there is an unexpected commonality between God-play and traditional liturgy in the form of a functional similarity between the two and propose that God-play may be regarded as liturgy-like practice that has not been traditionalised. My evaluati... (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft Jahrgang: 24 Heft: 2 Seiten: 127-152.