Ritual Participation and Interreligious Dialogue: Boundaries, Transgressions and Innovations

by Marianne Moyaert, Joris Geldhof

Overview

Shared ritual practices, multi-faith celebrations, and interreligious prayers are becoming increasingly common in the USA and Europe as more people experience religious diversity first hand. While ritual participation can be seen as a powerful expression of interreligious solidarity, it also carries with it challenges of a particularly sensitive nature. Though celebrating and worshiping together can enhance interreligious relations, cross-riting may also lead some believers to question whether it is appropriate to engage in the rituals of another faith community. Some believers may consider cross-ritual participation as inappropriate transgressive behaviour.

Bringing together leading international contributors and voices from a number of religious traditions, Ritual Participation and Interreligious Dialogue delves into the complexities and intricacies of the phenomenon. They ask: what are the promises and perils of celebrating and praying together? What are the limits of ritual participation? How can we make sense of feelings of discomfort when entering the sacred space of another faith community? The first book to focus on the lived dimensions of interreligious dialogue through ritual participation rather than textual or doctrinal issues, this innovative volume opens an entirely new perspective.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350012370
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	10/20/2016
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Marianne Moyaert is Professor and Chair of Comparative Theology and the Hermeneutics of Interreligious Dialogue at the VU University Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She is also guest lecturer at the KU Leuven, Belgium, teaching Jewish-Christian Relations.

Joris Geldhof is Professor of Liturgical Studies and Sacramental Theology at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, KU Leuven, Belgium. He is the director of the Liturgical Institute in Leuven, Belgium.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Exploring the Phenomenon of Interreligious Ritual Participation, Marianne Moyaert
Part I: Philosophical, Theological and Phenomenological Observations
2. On Doing What Others Do: Intentions and Intuitions in Multiple Religious Practice, S. Mark Heim (Andover Newton Theological School, USA)
3. Bowing before Buddha and Allah? Reflections on Crossing over Ritual Boundaries, Maria Reis Habito (Elijah Interfaith Institute, USA)
4. Enlightened Presuppositions of (Spiritually Motivated) Cross-Ritual Participation, Walter Van Herck (University of Antwerp, Belgium)
5. Religion Is as Religion Does: Interfaith Prayer as a Form of Ritual Participation, Douglas Pratt (University of Birmingham, UK)
6. Interreligious Ritual Participation: Insights from Inter-Christian Ritual Participation, Martha Moore-Keish (Columbia Theological Seminary, USA)
Part II: Muslim and Christian-Muslim Perspectives
7. Receiving the Stranger: A Muslim Theology of Shared Worship, Timothy Winter (Wolfson College, Cambridge, UK)
8. Interreligious Prayer between Roman Catholic Christians and Muslims, Gavin D'Costa (University of Bristol, UK)
9. Back-and-Forth Riting: The Dynamics of Christian-Muslim Encounters in Shrine Rituals, Bagus Laksana (Sanata Dharma University in Yogyakarta, Indonesia)
Part III: Christian and East Asian Religious Perspectives
10. Offering and Receiving Hospitality: The Meaning of Ritual Participation in the Hindu Temple, Anantanand Rambachan (Saint Olaf College, USA)
11. Towards an Open Eucharist, Richard Kearney (Boston College, USA)
12. The Practice of Zazen as Ritual Performance, André van der Braak (VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
13. Theorizing Ritual for Interreligious Practice, James W. Farwell (Virginia Theological Seminary, USA)
Part IV: Jewish and Jewish-Christian Perspectives
14. Transgressing and Setting Ritual Boundaries: A Puzzling Paradox, Rachel Reedijk (VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
15. Mourbaning the Loss of My Daughter: The Failure of Inter-Faith Bereavement Rituals, Anya Topolski (Centre for Ethics, Social and Political Philosophy, Belgium)
16. Parameters of Hospitality for Interreligious Participation: A Jewish Perspective, Ruth Langer (Boston College, USA)
17. Epilogue: Inter-riting as a Peculiar form of Love , Joris Geldhof (Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium)
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

"Ritual, Participation and Interreligious Dialogue is a superb collection of essays addressing with boldness and acuity three turns in modern theology and the study of religion: the turn to religious practice in all its forms as a topic of study, attention to what people actually do, as distinct from theologies and rules about what ought to happen; sensitivity to the interplay of practice and theology, each influencing the other; [and] a new sensitivity to the phenomenon of interreligious participation in religious practice ... this timely and valuable volume helps us to move forward in addressing a key phenomenon of this century." - Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

From the Publisher