James V. Spickard

Ritual theory, ritual practice

CONTENTS INTRODUCTION THE PRACTICE OF RITUAL THEORY 1. Constructing Ritual 2. Constructing Meaning 3. Constructing Discourse II. THE SENSE OF RITUAL 4. Action and Practice 5. The Ritual Body 6. Ritual Traditions and Systems III. RITUAL AND POWER 7. Ritual Control 8. Ritual, Belief, and Ideology 9. The Power of Ritualization BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX

Rethinking religious social action : What is rational about rational-choice theory ?

The rational-choice/market-model of religions really consists of two, separable parts : a model of religious behavior plus a rational-choice explanation of why that behavior occurs. This article examines three key theoretical assumptions of the latter explanation. It shows two of these to be false and the third to be so vague as to be useless. This undercuts a rational-choice psychology as an explanation for religious actions. It undercuts, however, neither the utility of the market-model itself nor of a rational-choice model of human behavior (as opposed to action). Together these can describe the overall structure of the religious marketplace, but cannot - and need not - describe the subjective actions of religious persons

Ethnocentrism, Social Theory and Non-Western Sociologies of Religion Toward a Confucian Alternative

The sociology of religion claims to possess a cross-culturally valid objectivity that is belied by its paradigm shifts in both classical and recent times. Its sequential emphasis on such issues as the changing bases of religious authority, secularization and rational choice depends in large part on Western models of religion, of the relationship between the individual and society, and on key Western values. These are not shared by other traditions. Classical Confucianism provides sociological models, core concepts and values that are distinctly different from those of the West. It has the potential to generate a sociology of religion altogether unlike the one to which we are accustomed. This article begins the task of outlining such a potential sociology.

Tribes and Cities: Towards an Islamic Sociology of Religion

Mainstream sociology of religion often presumes that its conceptual categories are universal and complete. They are, however, grounded in the Western intellectual tradition and arise from that traditions reflection on Euro-American history. This article outlines an alternative sociology of religion based on the writings of the 14th-century Moslem historian Ibn Khaldûn—whose ideas arise from a very different world. His sociology is not grounded in individuals, nor does it focus only on religious beliefs and institutions. Instead it emphasizes the distinction between tribes and cities as forms of social organization, the importance of Al `Assabiyya or “groupfeeling” in social life, and the special role of Islam in transforming that feeling. This locates religious individualism and institutionalism at distinct points in an historical cycle, throwing new light on debates about religious authority, popular religion, and secularization. It also highlights the connections between religion and ethnicity—helping us understand key late 20th-century phenomena.

Human Rights Through a Religious Lens: a Programmatic Argument

Human rights ideals may be subjected to religious analysis in contemporary global society, in two senses. First, they constitute a system of sacred symbols, which moreover accurately represent the existing social order. Civil and political rights sanctify the individual, which matches the importance of individuation for a globalized socio-economy. Economic and social rights enshrine mutual responsibility. The call for group rights reflects an antisystemic localism that fills the cultural void left by structural globalization. Second, human rights claims are not just symbolic; they are also moral. Their relationship with globalized society opens the possibility of grounding them in something more secure than positive law. First- and second-generation rights concretize the key practical principles that make globalization possible: individuation and a worldwide division of labor. Third-generation rights can be similarly, though less securely, based in the distributed decision-making required of an information-age economy.

A Revised Functionalism in the Sociology of Religion: Mary Douglas's Recent Work

Mary Douglas is justly famed for her social analyses of symbolism and for her ‘grid/group’ technique of relating cosmologies to particular social structures. In recent years she has turned her attention toward developing, in her words, ‘a coherent argument about the social control of cognition’. She argues that religious and other beliefs are ‘part of the action’ in society. They are strongly connected with the needs of the institutional order, while remaining products of individual consciousness. Douglass recent work is theoretically interesting because she uses a functionalist argument to defend the rationality of social actors, while at the same time showing how belief systems are generated from the social order. This essay critically reviews her argument, and weighs the efficacy of her approach for scholars interested in the social role of religious beliefs.

Accepting the post-colonial challenge: Theorizing a Khaldûnian approach to the Marian apparition at Medjugorje

This article seeks to expand the sociology of religion’s conceptual toolkit beyond the focus on religious belief and on organizational structures inherited from Western Christianity. After criticizing these origins, I use Ibn Khaldûn’s notion of al ‘assabiyyah or “group-feeling” to analyze the events surrounding the Marian apparitions at Medjugorje, Bosnia, in the 1980s and the later events in the same region during the 1990s Bosnian wars. This concept’s strength is its ability to treat religious and ethnic solidarity as part of the same phenomenon—something that previous literature on Medjugorje and the Bosnian war failed to do. Its weakness (for this case) is its focus on centripetal (attractive) solidarity rather than solidarity created by heightened social boundaries. The solidarities at Medjugorje were more often of the latter kind.

The Porcupine Tango: What Ethnography Can and Cannot Do for Theologians

Ethnography and theology are two contrasting life-activities, regulated by separate ideals. Like other sciences, ethnography is regulated by the ideal of ‘truth’. It gathers data about human communities, particularly their worldviews and their tacit social practices. New data correct old conclusions, forcing ethnographers to discard the ideas with which they began their investigations. Following the regulative ideal helps them avoid placing their concerns about those of the people they study. Theologians (and others) can use ethnographic methods to gather data about congregational life, how people practice their religions, etc., but this practice itself is not ‘doing’ theology.

Sex, Death, and Witchcraft: A Contemporary Pagan Festival

to the fore again and she explored many ways while continuing to research and write, finding a home with austere Zen Buddhists. At the beginning of her book, she quotes Pascal’s saying that there is a God-shaped hole in the human heart. The individual may try to fill the hole with many things, including institutional religion and its preoccupations, but it could be said that the hole is too big for any of these makeshifts. In the end, the mysterium tremendum et fascinans, whatever or whoever it may be, is not going to be known by any manipulation of names, words or symbols, but only in the depth of the silent soul. This book is to be recommended highly to anyone interested in one person’s trajectory in the recent religious history of the UK and the contemporary experience of spiritual life.

Diversity Versus Pluralism? Notes from the American Experience

Europe is newly concerned with religious pluralism and questions of immigrant inclusion. Seen from the U.S., several issues stand out. First, our experience with diversity suggests that race is as much an issue as religion. Race is not just an American problem; race and religion are everywhere sources of identity and solidarity, just as they are sources of division. The Ellis Island model of immigration, in which churches helped immigrants adjust to American life, may have worked for Whites, but it did not work nearly as well for others. Don’t expect integration on that score. Second, American religious diversity is overstated. Figures show that the apostles of America’s new religious pluralism are talking about at most 9 % of our foreign-born immigrants and 4 % of our native population. The U.S. is still dominantly Christian, though that Christianity is internally diverse. Recently, sectarian Christian diversity has infected our politics, contributing to our current polarization. Racial, religious, and political conflicts are thus alive and well. Is ‘civil religion’ a solution? Not if the civil religion in question is of the priestly or the sectarian kind. At times, however, American civil religion has been prophetic, speaking to the country’s highest ideals. Only then has religion (of any form) been a resource for broad inclusion.