Rituals and Practices in World Religions

Abstract

Religious rituals and practices are making headlines in contemporary society. Healthcare providers are increasingly ‘prescribing’ mindfulness meditation as a psychological intervention, and Yoga is now practiced in studios and gyms across the USA and around the world. These originally religious practices are becoming increasingly popular both as therapeutic applications and as subjects of scientific research. Each has been examined in hundreds of academic publications spanning neuroscience, psychology, and medicine (e.g., Holzel et al. 2011). However, the cultural and scientific status of these particular examples has, to some extent, obscured their original religious context, raising a number of contentious scholarly questions regarding the secularization of these practices (Yaden et al. 2018). Furthermore, while mindfulness and Yoga have recently received widespread scientific and cultural attention, many other rituals and practices from world religious traditions – including many that are practiced by millions of people every day – have remained underexplored. This book seeks to fill these gaps by expanding the discourse around religious rituals and practices. In chapters throughout this book, scholars have codified, described, and contextualized rituals and practices from a diverse set of religious traditions. A few of these rituals and practices may, like mindfulness or Yoga, be generalizable beyond their tradition of origin, perhaps illuminating certain “active ingredients” that psychologists and clinicians can learn from while crafting therapeutic or positive interventions. For example, some aspects of the Catholic Rosary may be generalizable, while other elements that connect more directly to the underlying religious belief system are non-transferrable to secular settings. Many other practices, like the Islamic prayer of Salat, may be so deeply connected to their underlying religious significance that believers would consider them highly offensive if practiced by non-believers, making any secular adaptations entirely inappropriate. In addition, some secular uses of religious practices and rituals could be cited as instances of cultural appropriation. These concerns are discussed throughout this book.