Christmas II: Carols and Misrecognition

For those who celebrate, I hope everyone had a great Christmas, Hanukkah, Yuletide, Festivus, Kwanzaa, or whatever it is you are celebrating, have celebrated, or will be celebrating!!!

I had the fortune to attend 5 Christmas Eve services and 1 Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve/Christmas Day. 

There was a surprising amount of consistency between the services of various denominations. Virtually every service featured the carols: "Silent Night," "O Little Town of Bethlehem," "Joy to the World," and "We Three Kings of Orient Are." 

The Scripture readings were almost universally from Luke 2 and Isaiah 9. Some also chose to read the famous John 3:16. 

In this post I will talk about the carols and in the next post I will briefly discuss the chosen Scriptures. 

Catherine Bell in Ritual Theory: Ritual Practice talks about various aspects of ritual/practice, including 'misrecognition.' Rituals feature a misrecognition is of their limits and constraints, and of their ends and means, pg 82. 

One example given is that in a gift exchange there is often a misrecognition of generosity, since the gifts exchanged are usually of approximately equal value pg 83. 

(The basic idea of misrecognition is that ritual participants are involved in something that can not be brought about solely through their actions as individuals.)

If Bonhoeffer was right that Christians should and do participate in the Christmas story, if Walter Kim (the pastor giving the sermon at Park Street) is right that Christians participate in the most epic story ever, then we should take seriously the activities of Christmas services as ritual. 

Thus, we should find instances of misrecognition. 

Two of the services I attended, Park Street Church and King's Chapel, had a mother and father with an infant child dress up as the Holy family (Joseph, Mary, and baby Jesus).

Christmas Decorations at Park Street Church

These congregations invited us to adore the Holy family. A deliberate misrecognition of what they were actually doing vs. what was happening in the ritual. (No one really thinks that they were adoring the actual Holy family). 

Many carols exhibit a similar misrecognition. "Silent Night" was sung almost exclusively in the present tense. Almost as if by singing the song we were witnessing Christ's birth. 

Two others, "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and "We Three Kings of Orient Are" start with present tense while Christ is being born and end either in the contemporary world using present tense or reference the fulfillment of Christ's life. For instance, in "We Three Kings of Orient Are", the final verse references the 'stone cold tomb.'

Many liturgical calendars also exhibit a similar misrecognition of time. 

According to many traditions, Christmas or Christmastide is actually twelve days and ends with Epiphany. In twelve days of ritual time we go from the birth of Christ to Epiphany.

Thus, the Christmas story, more than most Christian stories has a tendency to mesh the beginning and end of Christ's life. 

Arguably all of these are examples of a 'misrecognition' of time and place with believers being invited to participate in witnessing the birth of Christ as if it is currently happening. 

Christmas I: God is in the Manger by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

For Christmastime, I decided to read God is in the Manger, an advent devotional composed of: selected writings by Dietrich Bonhoeffer (a famous German theologian and political prisoner of Hitler), some of his letters, supplemental writings from other authors, and scripture.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

This was organized and edited by Jana Reiss and translated from the original German by O.C. Dean Jr. Thus, though the words are Bonhoeffer's, it's organization is not.

The word 'advent' means waiting, so advent is about waiting for the coming of Christ the child. Those who read advent devotionals already know that Christ has come and, at least for Bonhoeffer, it is a reminder to await the second coming as well. 

A devotional assumes that you are Christian and are well versed in the story of Christ. Specifically it assumes that you believe that Christ's birth was foretold to Mary, the wise men, and shepherds, that Mary was a virgin, and that Christ would redeem us. 

For simplicity's sake this post will be written mostly from this perspective. (Remember the goal is to understand before critiquing).

Like many devotionals, this devotional is organized to be read daily and each week has a theme. 

The first week's theme is waiting. 

But how can you wait for something that has already happened? The first reading answers this question by comparing the wait of the first Advent to the wait for the second Advent:

The Advent season is a season of waiting, but our whole life is an Advent season, that is, a season of waiting for the last Advent, pg. 2.

This is followed by a letter from Bonhoeffer to his parents saying that he does not not know how much longer we have.

Not all can wait, some are satisfied or do not have respect, but those who do will also wait for Truth, love, and all that is good. If we cannot wait then we will not have these things. We have largely become indifferent to the fear that Christ's coming should arouse in us (pg 8).

The second week's theme is mystery of Christ and mystery in general.

Mystery is a child-like quality; mystery is where we reach the boundary of our being. The greatest mystery is the person next to us. And the deeper you know someone the greater the mystery; the greatest mystery is when you know someone so well that you fall in love. The fact that you can be so close to someone is the "greatest mystery" (pg. 20)

It is also the wonder of wonders that God loves the broken and the lowly, the excluded and the broken. He loves us so much he became one of us. Like God becoming mortal we should celebrate Christmas by laying down our power and dignity. By doing so we participate in the mystery that is Advent. 

The third week's theme is redemption. 

Jesus does not want to exonerate himself from the guilt because people he loves are living in it; so he becomes guilty, the one who takes all the guilt. He does this out of love. 

Even those who act responsibility should not want to absolve themselves of guilt, this would blind them to the guilt that all humanity shares. 

Advent reminds us that we are participants in world judgment and world redemption. But God does not wish to frighten us; we should not be afraid. pg. 44. But only by experiencing the initial fear described in the first week's reading, can we appreciate the beauty of advent. The initial fear should not last. 

The fourth week's theme incarnation.

God wants us to become human, pg. 50. God became human so that human beings can become human. "In Christ the form of human beings before God was created anew," pg. 52. 

Remembering the Incarnation every year at Christmas time is a reminder that he lets himself be found by everyone. He was here among us. 

The Christ-child is God despite his weakness and poverty because of his divine love. Bonhoeffer encourages us to pause at this statement: "God became a child!"

In this devotional it almost seems as if the transformation from God into God-child happens every Christmas pg. 58-59.

Before advent is a liminal period, an in between of promise and fulfillment - Luci Shaw quoted in God is in the Manger pg. 61.

After Christmas

There are readings for the twelve days of Christmas and the beginning of Epiphany as well. Though I won't write about those, at least not yet. 

Bottom Line

Overall I can see why this is a popular Christmas devotional. All the chosen pieces were beautifully written and Bonhoeffer was writing from a context of waiting to get out of a prison cell, giving it additional meaning. 

Supplementary readings from other authors and the Bible passages were well chosen to help put into context Bonhoeffer's main passage.

From an outside perspective you could criticize this devotional on its various theological claims. And you are free to do so. But personally I would find that uninteresting. 

And assuming an internal Christian perspective there is little to critique. It is a book that is intended to aid in Christmastide meditation/thought/prayer. A Christian may even disagree with the thoughts in the book, but that still means it did its job as an aid to Christian thought. 

One thing I would like to point out is to say that this is not a rational book, in the sense that it is not even trying to be rational. 

There is no real argument, there are only ideas to meditate on around Christmas time. This is something that certain critics of religion often forget; sometimes religion is not trying to be rational, nor should it necessarily always be rational. 

Religion is often experiential and this book is designed to aid in the religious experience of Christmas. 

Collective Effervescence and Star Wars: The Force Awakens

(Warning some spoilers ahead)

Star Wars: The Force Awakens had the most advance ticket sales of any movie ever in America and it has done so across the world, including the United Kingdom and Russia.


There is even a rise in the number of people practicing the religion of Jedism. While I personally prefer Star Trek over Star Wars, I have to admit Star Wars is better able to bring people together into what Emile Durkheim calls collective effervescence, when a community comes together and simultaneously communicates the same thought and participate in the same action. 


Thanks to good friends I was able to see The Force Awakens on opening weekend. The theater was packed.

Ritual:

Like religious rituals people prepared for the movie with great care. There were costumes, light sabers, and a collective recap of the movies.


We waited for the advent of the new movie. Much the same way some Christians wait for the advent of Christ: "Not everyone can wait: neither the sated nor the satisfied nor those without respect can wait." (From a famous Advent devotional by Bonhoeffer).


We respect Star Wars. Granted some amount of commercialism has caused our lack of satiation and satisfaction with the completeness of the story. At least in the sense that now we know there will be more, we won't be satisfied until we see the story unfold. 

Previously, I wrote a review of Film as Religion and complained that it neglected Durkheim's insights into ritual via collective effervescence. It neglected to think deeply about these insights both to understand certain tropes in movies/television and to understand the movie experience itself.

Movies shouldn't typically be compared to religious experiences, rituals, or myths. But some movies lend themselves to this comparison more readily. My top three picks this type of comparison are: 1) Rocky Horror Picture Show 2) Harry Potter and 3) Star Wars.  


So what was happening that could be considered ritualistic at this movie that doesn't happen at most movies?


Prior to the movie itself, I along with a few friends watched the first six movies in anticipation of the new movie. Similar to how some Christians read and contemplate advent devotionals weeks before Christmas. 



The day we were seeing the movie, some of us thought specifically about our attire. One wore a Chewbacca onesie and I wore a shirt that said "Come to the nerd side we have pi."



On the car ride to the movie, we listened to scores from the first six movies and "Yoda" by Weird Al. Some of us also sang "The Saga Begins" as we waited in line. 



The content of Star Wars: The Force Awakens lent itself to a communal experience as well. The reveal of Millenium Falcon, Han Solo and Chewbacca, Leia, C3PO, R2D2, and lastly Luke Skywalker were greeted by communal applause.


In these moments specifically everyone in the movie theater was participating in the same activity having the same thoughts. We collectively effervesced. 

Myth:

(Spoilers immediately ahead)

Myth is often about repetition. And Star Wars is a modern myth and it was designed to be so. Levi-Strauss, a scholar of myth in the 20th century proposed that myths always reference previous myths.  

"The layered structure of myth...allows us to look upon myth as a matrix of meanings which are arranged in lines or columns, but in which each level always refers to some other level, which ever way the myth is read." -- Levi-Strauss Raw and the Cooked, pg. 340 

George Lucas studied Joseph Campbell's monomyth extensively, but in some ways it makes more sense to look at Star Wars in terms of Levi-Strauss's structuralism because The Force Awakens mirrors Star Wars: A New Hope.

In both movies Rey, the protagonist and a force user, is found on a remote planet, comes into possession of a droid(s) that the villains of the movie are searching for, planets are blown up by a large weapon stationed in space, this in turn gets blown up by the good guys, and the force user is told to go to a master for further training. 



There were also interesting twists. Kylo Ren, a dark force user, was struggling to keep with the dark side, Rey the force user in this film starts to discover her powers on her own, and new Sith powers were revealed. 



Levi-Strauss proposed that each myth works in terms of binaries (light side v. dark side). Also in each myth there will be mediating figures who mediate or resolve these oppositions. They are in between. Kylo Ren is a mediating figure because it is revealed that he trained with Luke and was having trouble living up to his idol/grandfather Darth Vader.  

Bottom Line:

Immediately after the movie we jumped up and down, talked about the movie, and discussed future possibilities for the next. 



I asked a friend if he had a religious experience. He enthusiastically said yes, that he felt like the whole universe was laid out in front of him. 


If you are sympathetic with the idea of collective effervescence, the reliance of religion on myth, or even sympathetic to a personal experiential theory of religion, then its hard to deny that under certain conditions a movie, such as Star Wars: The Force Awakens, can bring about a religious experience. 

Spotlight on Witchcraft IV: Reflections and Recap

Ritual in Witchcraft:

Witchcraft generally emphasizes ritual. 


Where a Christian book store would focus its inventory on devotional books and books on theology, a store dedicated to Witchcraft typically sells objects, such as wands and potion ingredients, used to perform rituals.  


For those who practice, witchcraft has understandable and repeatable rules . Thus, understanding ritual theory (including what a ritual is and how rituals are created) will help us understand Wicca. 


When discussing what ritual is, we should avoid two pitfalls. The first is claiming that ritual is entirely distinct from everyday activities, while the second (and opposite) is that ritual is virtually identical to everyday activities.

Catherine Bell offers a good way to begin thinking about ritual:

...ritualization is a way of acting that is designed and orchestrated to distinguish and privilege what is being done in comparison to other, usually more quotidian, activities. (Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice, pg. 74)

Ritual is ritual by virtue of the intention of people to set the ritual action apart from other activities that they perform in their normal lives. That is, according to Bell, ritual is not a time to commune or access the sacred, but rather ritual creates a sacred time and space. 



According to Bell, ritual structures community through manipulation of bodies; and community structures rituals through beliefs. 


It is the first structuring aspect of ritual that is immediately apparent given that contemporary witchcraft does not (comparatively to other religions) have deep historical ties to its sources. 


The circle that I participated in on Samhain (Oct. 31) had us chant "We are a circle, inside a circle, with no beginning, and never ending." While chanting we physically created this reality, becoming a circle inside of a circle. 

Gallow's Hill, Salem - Samhain 2015

Then we asked for protection from the Guardians of the North, East, South, and West, individually. This can be interpreted as calling on the larger circle (of the earth) for protection of the circle we had just created. (Though I am unsure that the Wiccans participating would agree.)


Only after this did we call on the central deities of Wicca, the Triple Goddess and the Great Horned God.  


Thus, this ritual structures this community by influencing them to physically act out the nature of the cosmos physically reinforcing their metaphysics AND the communities structured this ritual based on their understanding of reality. 


This is a nifty little feed back loop, theory of ritual that makes sense of large portions of the Samhain Sabbat. 


Much more could be said about the rituals of the Wiccans based on ritual theory, including its emphasis on binaries such as inside vs. outside, and male vs. female


Wicca would be a good case study for a scholarly discussion of ritual theory in practice. Particularly how people are creating, recreating, and/or discovering rituals might give us insight into ritual theory. 


This is especially true since Bell states at the beginning of her book that ritual theory both structures ritual and is structured by ritual, in a similar way that ritual structures and is structured by community. 

The Town of Salem:

As someone interested in the history of religion in America, I would be interested in reading a book about the history of contemporary witchcraft in Salem. 

I would be interested to learn how Salem became a central location for modern Wicca and whether/how its history influenced people to become witches. 

There is no direct connection between the people accused of witchcraft centuries ago and contemporary witches. The former were accused of making pacts with the devil and the later worship a God and Goddess not Satan.