It’s been quite a week for those interested in the relationship between liturgy and the public life in Washington DC. The Department of State hosted
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Category: Ritual Studies
The Scrutinies: Embodying the Serious Business of Belief
In the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, the prayers of the scrutiny rites attest to the resolve of the Elect to remain faithful, even in the midst of confusion, doubt, or rejection, reflecting the serious nature of faith.
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Do we still have a king?
There is a curious feature in the Prayer of the Faithful for Episcopalians: we tend to give tremendous airtime to the executive branch. One might suspect that this is the result of some sort of residual effect of its historic relationship to the Church of England. But a look at the history of the texts says otherwise.
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Standing together: the solidarity of prayer
I am not attempting to erase differences between Christianity and Islam or even advocate for interreligious prayer, but I find it helpful to reflect on how a visual and kinesthetic practice embodying an Islamic lex orandi lex credendi may function as a call to reflection on Christian liturgy and the importance of solidarity in body as well as spirit.
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Rituals for Secular People
The Atlantic has a piece that discusses the “Ritual Design Lab” in Silicon valley that will design rituals for births, deaths, and everything in between.
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Review: Speaking With Aquinas, by David Turnbloom
David Turnbloom’s impressive study of how Thomas Aquinas understands the Eucharist to produce it’s effects, and what those effects are, is both an important new work of sacramental theology and an important investigation of how differing theologies can profitably dialogue.
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Stop Explaining Rituals!
It’s all quite simple. And very hard.
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Absolution Confusion
Many people are under the impression that the absolution by the priest actually absolves them from their sins.
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From Left to Right or from Right to Left? The Sign of the Cross
Why Roman Catholics make the sign of the cross from top to bottom and then from left to right.
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Watching People Watch (Then Not Watch) the Eclipse: A Liturgical-Theological Reflection
While the natural-cosmic event was surely most captivating, I also discovered my inner-anthropologist kicking in to make the following observation about the before-and-after dynamics that I think sheds some light (pardon the pun) on liturgical time-keeping.
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