tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8428685.post115696637328784422..comments2023-09-19T07:50:13.308-07:00Comments on Feminary: Response for SpencerStasihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10864458542635159512noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8428685.post-1157071468870401302006-08-31T17:44:00.000-07:002006-08-31T17:44:00.000-07:00This is one of the most beautifully written and TR...This is one of the most beautifully written and TRUE comments I've ever had (and I really could not have said it better, myself!!).<BR/><BR/>THANK YOU!Stasihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10864458542635159512noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8428685.post-1156986062453194582006-08-30T18:01:00.000-07:002006-08-30T18:01:00.000-07:00I've read the interchange between Spencer and you ...I've read the interchange between Spencer and you and am intrigued. There is no religion without ritual. ritual is the basis and reminder of the foundational elements of any religion. It is what creates community between the people who share that ritual. I am reading Joseph Campbell's book Myths to Live By. Obviously, this book is secular, but even so there is a connection in terms of the importance of rites to establish community. I'll give you the quote as he said it, then explain myself. "Myths are the mental supports of rites; rites, the physical enaactments of myth." (p. 45) I know that myth is not the same thing as religion and I'm not saying it is by using the quote. Rather, the last part of the statement gave me illumination for the rituals that I endured as a child in church. Without my conscious knowing, everytime I participated in the Lord's Supper, observed a baptism, attended a wedding or funeral there I absorbed the elemental aspects of the religion. It was, in the end, the rituals I had performed countlessly without intent that helped me remember my center later when I wanted to remove myself from a church that no longer made me feel that community. The rituals were the physical reenactments of my beliefs. Because they were so a part of my physical self, they seemed to remain even when I wanted nothing to do with it. The rituals were what made sense to me in all of the talk in any organized religion. I began to do the the rituals with intent and experienced the community of believers. They were what held me and guided me to a new understanding of my Christian life.<BR/><BR/>I have taken part in some churches that have removed ritual because of it's ties with the Catholic church. They seem sterile and removed from the truth of God. (And I am not a Catholic, nor was I raised one--stern Calvinism for me,) Throwing out rituals that seem outdated will not renew vigor in a church that is striving to seek members. Rather, that church will appear cut loose and watered down. It IS the rituals that make the religion.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com