Religion: Rituals, not beliefs, provide the social glue for religious communities

Rituals, not shared beliefs, provide the glue that holds together religious communities over a long period of time, says a Penn State sociologist.

"Members of a congregation may assume that they hold common religious beliefs, but it is religious ritual that creates and sustains continued fellowship," says Dr. Daniel B. Lee assistant professor of sociology at Penn State's DuBois Campus.

"This is a key point for understanding the social structure of religious communities and the relationship between ritual and belief," Lee notes. "While an individual may sincerely hold religious beliefs, a group does not have a common mind and cannot hold any belief. Faith becomes socially relevant through action. Until there is action, religion is socially meaningless."

Lee presented the paper, "On the Social Meaning and Meaninglessness of Religion," today (Aug. 24) at the annual American Sociological Association meeting. "Many religious groups have never demonstrated a desire to establish common beliefs or an orthodoxy. Common practice is typically the only thing that matters," says Lee. "The Old Order Mennonites and Amish are good examples of this. Despite the well-known and respected behavioral conformity of the two groups, the religious beliefs of members are often fluid and unstructured."

As a case study, Lee has observed the symbols and rituals of Weaverland Mennonites in New York State. For this Old Order congregation, symbols and rituals sustain unity because they completely transcend the individual beliefs of members. The appearance and activity of each person is regulated by the rules of the church. As long as a person conforms to the rules, his personal beliefs are never questioned. Lee says this same thesis may be applied to all kinds of social groups. It is especially interesting, however, with regard to religious and political groups. Churches, synagogues, mosques and governments tend to construct rituals to test or demonstrate the faith and allegiance of members. Nonetheless, people can participate in those rituals and symbolically communicate without truly believing or understanding the inspiration that may have been the source of the ritual.

"In the United States, children learn to pray in languages that they do not understand and recite a Pledge of Allegiance that they are unable to explain. In order to be effective sources of social solidarity, the symbols and rituals of a community need to be rule- governed and clearly established. They do not, however, require a common psychology or level of understanding," Lee says.

Among the Weaverland Mennonites, members who disobey the "gospel and the regulations of the church" and who do not repent of their sins are "expelled" from the congregation. If they decide to mend their ways and rejoin the church, they must seek the permission of the bishop to ask for forgiveness in front of the assembled congregation. "My observation was that members do not feel it important to know specifically which basic belief was transgressed by the action of the erring person," Lee notes. "In fact, during the ritual of reconciliation that I observed, nobody seemed to demonstrate much interest in the interaction between the bishop and the one repenting. "Apparently, the important thing is that all members remain aware of the regulations of the church and conform to them," notes the Penn State sociologist. The act of reconciliation can be socially meaningful whether or not it is personally meaningful to the individual symbolically demonstrating his repentance." Weaverland Mennonites do not hold common religious beliefs because they have not attempted to create them, according to Lee. This need tends to first appear when a group begins to have more frequent contact with outsiders. It is only then that defending the faith with stated, explicit rules becomes necessary, he says. (Paul Blaum, Vicki Fong, PennState, 1998)


In his book "The Resurrection" Count Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) made some remarkable observations about the Christian church, their priests, the believers of Christ, and rituals / suppositions :

CHAPTER XXXIX: THE PRISON CHURCH — BLIND LEADERS OF THE BLIND.

The service began.

It consisted of the following. The priest, having dressed in a strange and very inconvenient garb, made of gold cloth, cut and arranged little bits of bread on a saucer, and then put them into a cup with wine, repeating at the same time different names and prayers.

[…]

The contents of the prayers were chiefly the desire for the welfare of the Emperor and his family. These petitions were repeated many times, separately and together with other prayers, the people kneeling. Besides this, several verses from the Acts of the Apostles were read by the deacon in a peculiarly strained voice, which made it impossible to understand what he read, and then the priest read very distinctly a part of the Gospel according to St. Mark, in which it said that Christ, having risen from the dead before flying up to heaven to sit down at His Father’s right hand, first showed Himself to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had driven seven devils, and then to eleven of His disciples, and ordered them to preach the Gospel to the whole creation, and the priest added that if any one did not believe this he would perish, but he that believed it and was baptised should be saved, and should besides drive out devils and cure people by laying his hands on them, should talk in strange tongues, should take up serpents, and if he drank poison should not die, but remain well.

The essence of the service consisted in the supposition that the bits cut up by the priest and put by him into the wine, when manipulated and prayed over in a certain way, turned into the flesh and blood of God.

These manipulations consisted in the priest’s regularly lifting and holding up his arms, though hampered by the gold cloth sack he had on, then, sinking on to his knees and kissing the table and all that was on it, but chiefly in his taking a cloth by two of its corners and waving it regularly and softly over the silver saucer and golden cup. It was supposed that, at this point, the bread and the wine turned into flesh and blood; therefore, this part of the service was performed with the greatest solemnity.

“Now, to the blessed, most pure, and most holy Mother of God,” the priest cried from the golden partition which divided part of the church from the rest, and the choir began solemnly to sing that it was very right to glorify the Virgin Mary, who had borne Christ without losing her virginity, and was therefore worthy of greater honor than some kind of cherubim, and greater glory than some kind of seraphim.

After this the transformation was considered accomplished, and the priest having taken the napkin off the saucer, cut the middle bit of bread in four, and put it into the wine, and then into his mouth. He was supposed to have eaten a bit of God’s flesh and swallowed a little of His blood. Then the priest drew a curtain, opened the middle door in the partition, and, taking the gold cup in his hands, came out of the door, inviting those who wished to do so also to come and eat some of God’s flesh and blood that was contained in the cup. A few children appeared to wish to do so.

[…]

“Jesus sweetest, glorified of the Apostles, Jesus lauded by the martyrs, almighty Monarch, save me, Jesus my Saviour. Jesus, most beautiful, have mercy on him who cries to Thee, Saviour Jesus. Born of prayer Jesus, all thy saints, all thy prophets, save and find them worthy of the joys of heaven. Jesus, lover of men.”

Then he stopped, drew breath, crossed himself, bowed to the ground, and every one did the same—the inspector, the warders, the prisoners; and from above the clinking of the chains sounded more unintermittently. Then he continued: “Of angels the Creator and Lord of powers, Jesus most wonderful, the angels’ amazement, Jesus most powerful, of our forefathers the Redeemer. Jesus sweetest, of patriarchs the praise. Jesus most glorious, of kings the strength. Jesus most good, of prophets the fulfilment. Jesus most amazing, of martyrs the strength. Jesus most humble, of monks the joy. Jesus most merciful, of priests the sweetness. Jesus most charitable, of the fasting the continence. Jesus most sweet, of the just the joy. Jesus most pure, of the celibates the chastity. Jesus before all ages of sinners the salvation. Jesus, son of God, have mercy on me.”

[…]

 

CHAPTER XL: THE HUSKS OF RELIGION

And none of those present, from the inspector down to Maslova, seemed conscious of the fact that this Jesus, whose name the priest repeated such a great number of times, and whom he praised with all these curious expressions, had forbidden the very things that were being done there;

that He had prohibited not only this meaningless much-speaking

and the blasphemous incantation over the bread and wine,

but had also, in the clearest words, forbidden men to call other men their master,

and to pray in temples;

and had ordered that every one should pray in solitude,

had forbidden to erect temples, saying that He had come to destroy them,

and that one should worship, not in a temple, but in spirit and in truth;

and, above all, that He had forbidden not only to judge, to imprison, to torment, to execute men, as was being done here,

but had prohibited any kind of violence, saying that He had come to give freedom to the captives.

No one present seemed conscious that all that was going on here was the greatest blasphemy and a supreme mockery of that same Christ in whose name it was being done.

[…]

The priest did his part with a quiet conscience, because he was brought up from childhood to consider that the only true faith was the faith which had been held by all the holy men of olden times and was still held by the Church, and demanded by the State authorities.

He did not believe that the bread turned into flesh, that it was useful for the soul to repeat so many words, or that he had actually swallowed a bit of God. No one could believe this, but he believed that one ought to hold this faith. What strengthened him most in this faith was the fact that, for fulfilling the demands of this faith, he had for the last 15 years been able to draw an income, which enabled him to keep his family, send his son to a gymnasium and his daughter to a school for the daughters of the clergy.

[…]