Christian Ritual

[Disclaimer: this post makes a lot of broad claims, sometimes even historical ones! My goal is not to lay out universal claims for Christianity, but rather to explain my experience of a select, remote Christian context. Feel free to correct, explain, denounce, or question, anything said hence forth. I see no reason why my un-cited statements would be insufficient or misleading in some way.]

Ritual is a part of most, if not all, religions; Christianity is no exception. From major events such as marriages, baptisms, and funerals, to daily and weekly actions such as prayer, meditation, fasting, communion, singing, etc., 21st century Christianity appears to retain its ritual. In fact, after mentioning all of those, it seems as if it is primarily ritualistic. And yet, I find more and more that there is a constant doing-away with it.

Through the commencement of the enlightenment era, where modern thought found a place outside of religion, religion faced decisions such as: should it take up the rationalism of the time, should it concern itself only with itself, its doctrine, faith, and its own construction and exemplification of morality, and many other questions similar to this. In some form or other, many of the Christian sects have incorporated modernal rationalism in some fashion or other.

Seeing that the “science and religion” game isn’t a very good one to play (explained below), Christianity has recently begun to attempt to refocus upon what it is good at: faith, community, the development of its own sort of morality through charity, and ritual. However, I do not think the recent heritage of rationalism and focus on cognition within the past few centuries has been shed so successfully.

I recently attended a church service of a northern Indiana missionary church and the “rituals” astounded me. Concerning almost every song, and in almost every prayer, there was a call to a thought of, reflection on, attention to, etc. (a constant reflection and consciousness concerning what the attendee was doing). No longer can one “do”; rather, one must always think, reason, explain, justify, his or her ritualistic actions: think about the words of the song; know and explain why you celebrate Christmas; understand what this prayer means; and countless others.

Christianity is becoming a mental, cognitive, and very conscious-oriented religion. Even in trying to do away with the rationalism of the last several centuries, the congregation is asked to “think” back to the roots of Christianity and the bible, and then reflect upon that.

Even in ritual, there is this reiteration of the reflection; a centrality of thought in a realm created in and for thoughtlessness, for doing. Further, thinking and reflection also have their place in religion; we should always be prepared to think about what things we chose to be a part of. But with contemporary Christianity, thought (cognition) has become central, and this centrality is displacing the efficacy of ritual.

The Results

First, there is the resultant guilt (and self-centeredness) of repeatedly focusing on failures. This constant visualization and contemplation of the lack, cannot but conclude with a failure to succeed. One cannot achieve a success; there is always a failure and always a thinking on that failure. In this self-ish repetition, the Divine almost never enters in to it and thus, there is no peace.

But more to the point, it leads to doubt. This is why I said the “science and religion” game is not a good one to play. It is always misleading. So while I do not feel that the tension is warranted, it is always present. Part of the sermon talked directly about this. When people are constantly shown scientific information which appears to “explain” things that the church cannot, it results in doubt. Again, this explanation should never displace religion, but nonetheless, there is a fight for who gets the position, the sole position, between science and religion (in my opinion, there are two realms, and neither should problematize the other). Thus, people doubt the rational side of religion, completely missing the equally relevant non-rational/cognitive sides, such as ritual.

Perhaps the more disconcerting effects are the following:
Prayer becomes a (self-centered) petition for forgiveness of sins and chance at improvement of the self, rather than an openness to the Divine. Song is no longer sung and participated in, but the lyrics are to be contemplated and thought out. In rituals such as marriage, communion, funerals, and baptism, there is a constant call to reflection on the reasoning for the event, rather than the experiencing of the event itself. The self must always be (self-)conscious and aware of what it is doing, rather than being a part of and taken up in the experience. It delimits the self and closes off the believer from his or her relations with the ritual, the community, and the Divine.

The experience of Christianity has become remarkably cognitive.