Whatever our faith, we all need rituals
by Peter Mullen, TCW:
CHESTERTON was once accused of being superstitious and he replied: ‘I love my religion and I particularly love those parts of it which are ignorantly described as superstitious.’I agree with him. I think we should have more priestcraft as well. For the priest does have a craft. I am a priest and I try my best to practise it.
But really, why should someone living in our wonderfully progressed and modern 21st century stand gawping at relics or, worse still, kneeling in their presence? The answer is simple: it is to show devotion to something. These outward demonstrations of devotion, support, loyalty, commitment are not limited to Christians. Atheists and secularists do it. Are there any atheist Chelsea supporters? I’m sure there must be a few. They don’t merely support Chelsea in theory: they wear scarves and replica shirts. And on match day Stamford Bridge is like a raucous church with all that heartfelt chanting and singing.
The reason why Christians and atheists alike practise rituals which involve signs and tokens that superficially resemble totems and fetishes is because we are not disembodied minds. We are bodies, parts and passions and so we relate not just to intellectual matters, to some impossible realm of pure spirit, but we employ visible, physical and material things in all that we do. Ritual and drama are not savagery and primitive superstition: they are the embodiment of the poetic imagination. Enchantment involves putting words and desires into a chant. Try a psalm chant or a canticle – but perhaps not what they chant at Stamford Bridge.
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