What is Ritual?

"Ritual." We all think we know what it means...right? Ritual, though, is a lot more complicated than you think.

Twitter: @andrewmarkhenry

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[lshulman]

btw, just found your channel today. as a professor of religion, I find some of your topics ideal supplements for my students (especially valuable for my online classes). thank you!

[andythedishwasher]

A line from one of my hip hop songs "Your morning routines, even you call 'em a ritual/ And so is anything else you make habitual" Your clarification helped me understand this line a little better.

[lshulman]

perhaps one of the most essential characteristics of ritual would be that it involves SYMBOLIC actions. But we also should differentiate between religious vs non-religious ritual (as your example of a wedding suggests - nit all ritual is religious).

[kalsy]

I'm a professor of religion and I just discovered your channel. I'm so excited because this is great material to support my students through their readings!

[lshulman]

I can see (from this video as well as your "what is religion" video) that you tend to favor the functionalist defintions (what something DOES for us) rather than the essentialist (what something is).

[CasualGraph]

5:14 Huh. I guess you could frame handshakes as ritualistic, I guess I've always thought of them more as a component of language. Perhaps there's some sort of spectrum there.

[unangelitoguardian]

Love your take on ritual! Ritual is necessary and beautiful. Thank you.

[oreste]

The etymological meaning of ritual is: A fixed way of action transmited from generation to generation coming from the ancestors. The ritual does not accept innovations even in the slightest detail, but the actions have to be precisely in the way they were taught by the previous generation. This requires seriousness. On this basis, all activities from the entire day could be ritualized (physical work, eating, sleeping, sexual relations, reading, business, opening the door, etc.) if they are done precisely by the way taught through tradition. The rite is contrasted by amusement which means etymologically diverting the attention from serious stuff, in this case the rite. The ritual is born in collectivist societies and is done with sense of duty and obeissance. For example, a wedding is not always a ritual, according to the etymology. To be a ritual, it has to have all the details according to tradition. If not, it's an act of amusement.

[reamus]

What a wonderful video topic. Well done!

[TerryDashner]

Great work. Thank you for these brief topics

[RichardRoy]

I'd never really given it much thought till now. Thanks.

[kylestevensanders]

Love this. It really spoke to an idea I thought of, of living “Eucharistically, ” a concept inspired by Bonhoeffer’s Life Together, the idea of a “true” and truly “free” life being one lived “Eucharistically”— the idea that it is a lived reality, you are what you eat, and I guess then this mode of living could be turning life into a ritual itself, daily ritualizing yourself and your actions thoughts deeds etc to live a “true” life. Kind of like the Ignatian ideal of being a “contemplative in action”

[ems]

That "differentiation" definition of ritual is quite good. Interesting. Also, I have just realized that the only rituals I have ever participated in beyond the age of 12 were all matriculation / commencement / degree ceremonies. Perhaps this is why I found them to be a little "strange."

[oreste]

Please do a video about classification of religions in Orthodox, orthopraxic and ritualistic religions

[cherrypopsicle]

It’s 20:28 pm and my religion homework was due yesterday and this is the video I gotta watch-HELP😭💀😂

[soup]

Fascinating! Just what I was googling for :)

[krasimiraabdilla]

This was really interesting. Good job!!!

[Capetownmermaid]

Thank you for explaining rituals. So I understand that my intention is what makes it so?

[WiseBunny-zn]

The definitions you gave at te beginning correspond well to what a ritual means. The fact that with the passage of time and the relativization and discrediting of the mystical, cosmic and sacred, until its proliferation as a business, causes -over time- things detached from those contexts to be called ritual is different

[DecodingReligion]

key point behind the differentiation is that these actions symbolize the intention of connecting with the sacred