| RELIGIOUS RITES |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
It was during the first quarter of the 20th century that the concept of the
sacred (or holy) became dominant in the comparative study of religions. Nathan
Söderblom, an eminent Swedish churchman and historian of religions,
asserted in 1913 that the central notion of religion was "holiness"
and that the distinction between sacred
and profane was basic to all "real" religious life. In 1917 Rudolf
Otto's Heilige (Eng. trans., The Idea of the Holy1923)
appeared and exercised a great influence on the study of religion through its
description of religious man's experience of the "numinous"
(a mysterious, majestic presence inspiring dread and fascination), which Otto,
a German theologian and historian of religions, claimed, could not be derived
from anything other than an a priori sacred reality. Other scholars who used the
notion of sacred as an important interpretive term during this period included
the sociologist Émile Durkheim
in France, and the psychologist-philosopher Max
Scheler in Germany. For Durkheim, sacredness referred to those things in
society that were forbidden or set apart; and since these sacred things were set
apart by society, the sacred force, he concluded, was society itself. In
contrast to this understanding of the nature of the sacred, Scheler argued that
the sacred (or infinite) was not limited to the experience of a finite object.
While Scheler did not agree with Otto's claim that the holy is experienced
through a radically different kind of awareness, he did agree with Otto that the
awareness of the sacred is not simply the result of conditioning social and
psychological forces. Though he criticized Friedrich
Schleiermacher, an early 19th-century Protestant theologian, for being
too subjective in his definition of religion as "the consciousness of being
absolutely dependent on God," Otto was indebted to him in working out the
idea of the holy. Söderblom recorded his dependence on the scholarship of
the history of religions (Religionswissenschaft),
which had been a growing discipline in European universities for about half a
century; Durkheim had access to two decades of scholarship on nonliterate
peoples, some of which was an account of actual fieldwork. Scheler combined the
interests of an empirical scientist with a philosophical effort that followed in
the tradition of 19th-century attempts to relate human experiences to the
concept of a reality (essence) that underlies human thoughts and activities.
(see also religious
experience) |
|
|
Since the first quarter of the 20th century many historians of religions have
accepted the notion of the sacred and of sacred events, places, people, and acts
as being central in religious life if not indeed the essential reality in
religious life. For example, phenomenologists
of religion such as Gerardus
van der Leeuw and W. Brede
Kristensen have considered the sacred (holy) as central and have
organized the material in their systematic works around the (transcendent)
object and (human) subject of sacred (cultic) activity, together with a
consideration of the forms and symbols of the sacred. Such historians of
religions as Friedrich Heiler and Gustav Mensching organized their material
according to the nature of the sacred, its forms and structural types.
Significant contributions to the analysis and elaboration of the sacred have
been made by Roger Caillois, a sociologist, and by Mircea
Eliade, an eminent historian of religions. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The term sacred has been used from a wide variety of perspectives and given
varying descriptive and evaluative connotations by scholars seeking to interpret
the materials provided by anthropology and the history of religions. In these
different interpretations, however, common characteristics were recognized in
the sacred, as it is understood by participant individuals and groups: it is
separated from the common (profane) world; it expresses the ultimate total value
and meaning of life; and it is the eternal reality, which is recognized to have
been before it was known and to be known in a way different from that through
which common things are known. |
|
|
The term sacred comes from Latin sacer
("set off, restricted"). A person or thing was designated as
sacred when it was unique or extraordinary. Closely related to sacer
is numen ("mysterious power, god"). The term numinous is
used at present as a description of the sacred to indicate its power, before
which man trembles. Various terms from different traditions have been recognized
as correlates of sacer: Greek hagios, Hebrew
qadosh, Polynesian tapu,
Arabic haram; correlates of numen include the Melanesian mana, the
Sioux wakanda,
the old German haminja (luck), and Sanskrit Brahman. |
|
|
Besides the dichotomy of sacred-profane the sacred includes basic dichotomies
of pure-unpure and pollutant-"free." In ancient Rome the word sacer could
mean that which would pollute someone or something that came into contact with
it, as well as that which was restricted for divine use. Similarly, the
Polynesian tapu("tabu") designated
something as not "free" for common use. It might be someone or
something specially blessed because it was full of power, or it might be
something accursed, as a corpse. Whatever was tabu had special restrictions
around it, for it was full of extraordinary energy that could destroy anyone
unprotected with special power himself. In this case the sacred is whatever is
uncommon and may include both generating and polluting forces. On the other hand
there is the pure-impure dichotomy, in which the sacred is identified with the
pure and the profane is identified with the impure. The pure state is that which
produces health, vigour, luck, fortune, and long life. The impure state is that
characterized by weakness, illness, misfortune, and death. To acquire purity
means to enter the sacred realm, which could be done through purification
rituals or through the fasting, continence, and meditation of ascetic life. When
a person became pure he entered the realm of the divine and left the profane,
impure, decaying world. Such a transition was often marked by a ritual act of
rebirth. (see also
primitive religion, purification
rite, asceticism) |
|
|
|
|
|
Because the sacred contains notions both of a positive, creative power and a
danger that requires stringent prohibitions, the common human reaction is both
fear and fascination. Otto elaborated his understanding of the holy from this
basic ambiguity. Only the sacred can fulfill man's deepest needs and hopes;
thus, the reverence that man shows to the sacred is composed both of trust and
terror. On the one hand, the sacred is the limit of human effort both in the
sense of that which meets human frailty and that which prohibits human activity;
on the other hand, it is the unlimited possibility that draws mankind beyond the
limiting temporal-spacial structures that are constituents of human existence. |
|
|
Not only is there an ambivalence in the individual's reaction to the numinous
quality of the sacred but the restrictions, the tabus, can be expressive of the
creative power of the sacred. Caillois has described at length the social
mechanism of nonliterate societies, in which the group is divided into two
complementary subgroups (moieties), and has interpreted the tabus and the
necessary interrelationship of the moieties as expressions of sacredness.
Whatever is sacred and restricted for one group is "free" for the
other group. In a number of respects--e.g.,
in supplying certain goods, food, and wives--each group is dependent on the
other for elemental needs. Here the sacred is seen to be manifested in the order
of the social-physical universe, in which these tribal members live. To disrupt
this order, this natural harmony, would be sacrilege,
and the culprit would be severely punished. In this understanding of the sacred,
a person is, by nature, one of a pair; he is never complete as a single unit.
Reality is experienced as one of prescribed relationships, some of these being
vertical, hierarchical relationships and others being horizontal, corresponding
relationships. |
|
|
Another significant ambiguity is that the sacred manifests itself in concrete
forms that are also profane. The transcendent mystery is recognized in a
specific concrete symbol, act, idea, image, person, or community. The
unconditioned reality is manifested in conditioned form. Eliade has elucidated
this "dialectic of the sacred," in which the sacred may be seen in
virtually any sort of form in religious history: a stone, an animal, or the sea.
The ambiguity of the sacred taking on profane forms also means that even though
every system of sacred thought and action differentiates between those things it
regards as sacred or as profane, not all people find the sacred manifested in
the same form; and what is profane for some is sacred for others. |
|
|
|
|
|
The sacred appears in myths, sounds, ritual activity, people, and natural
objects. Through retelling the myth
the divine action that was done "in the beginning" is repeated. The
repetition of the sacred action symbolically duplicates the structure and power
that established the world originally. Thus, it is important to know and
preserve the eternal structure through which man has life, for it is the model
and source of power in the present. (see also
creation myth) |
|
|
The recognition of sacred power in the myth is related to the notion that
sound itself has creative power--in particular special, sacred sounds. Sometimes
these sounds are words, such as the name of god, divine myth, a prayer, or hymn;
but sometimes the most sacred sounds are those that do not have a common
meaning, for example, the Hindu om,
the Buddhist om mani padme hum, or the Jewish and Christian
"Hallelujah." (see also
mantra) |
|
|
Closely connected with verbal expressions of sacred power are activities done
in worship, in sacraments, sacrifices, and
festivals. Part of the importance of religious ritual is that in the realm of
the sacred all things have their place. In order for human existence to prosper
(or even continue) it must correspond as closely as possible to the divine
pattern (destiny, or will). Different religious traditions have different
theological and philosophical formulations of the meaning of sacraments. In
Roman Catholic Christianity, a sacrament is "an outward and visible sign of
an inward and invisible grace." In Brahmanic Hinduism a samskara(sacrament)
is a sacred act that perfects a person and that culminates at the end of a
series of samskaras in a spiritual rebirth, a symbolic "second
birth." In both of these cases, the sacred action establishes the relation
between the divine and human worlds. |
|
|
Other sacred activity includes initiation, sacrifice, and festival. Initiation
rites among nonliterate societies both expose and establish the world
view of the participants. The initiate learns the eternal order of life as
proclaimed in the myth. Life is viewed essentially as the work of supernatural
beings, and the initiate in this ritual is taught this secret of life and how to
gain access to divine benefits. The initiate learns the tabus and is often given
a sacred mark--e.g., circumcision, tattoo, or incisions--to express
physically that he is part of the sacred (original) community. In other
religions, such as Christianity, Buddhism, and Hinduism, an initiate to a
special holy (often monastic) community within the larger religious community is
designated by a change in name and wearing apparel, denoting his special
relation to the sacred. |
|
|
In festivals and sacrifices two religious functions are often combined: (1)
to provide new power (energy, life) for the world, and (2) to purify the
corrupted, defiled existence. Religious festivals
are a return to sacred time, that time prior to
the structured existence that most people commonly experience (profane time).
Sacred calendars provide the opportunity for the profane time to be rejuvenated
periodically in the festivals. These occasions symbolically repeat the
primordial chaos before the beginning of the world; and just as the world was
created "in the beginning," so in the repetition of that time the
present world is regenerated (see also Dimensions
of the sacred, below). The use of masks and the suspension of normal tabus
express the unstructured, unconditioned nature of the sacred. Dancing, running,
singing, and processions are all techniques for re-creation, for stimulating the
original power of life. Ritual
activity moves power in two directions: (1) it concentrates it in one place,
time, and occasion, and (2) it releases power into the everyday stream of events
through its self-abundance--the primal vibration reverberates throughout
existence. The new energy dispels the old, depleted, polluted energy; it
cleanses the constricted, clogged, hardened channels of life. (see also chaos and order) |
|
|
One of the most important forms in which man has access to the sacred is in
the sacrifice. The central procedure in all
sacrifices is the use of a victim or substitute to serve as a mediator between
the sacred and profane worlds. The sacrifice (Latin sacri-ficium, "making
sacred") is a consecration of an offering through which the profane world
has access to the sacred without being destroyed by the sacred. Instead, the
sacrificial object (victim) is destroyed in serving as a unique, extraordinary
channel between these two realms. In sacrificial rites it is important to
duplicate the original (divine) act; and because creation is variously conceived
in different religious traditions, different forms are preserved: the burning or
crushing of the "corn mother," the crushing of the soma stalks,
the slaughter of the lamb without blemish, the blood spilling of a sacred
person, such as the firstborn. |
|
|
Sacredness is manifested in sacred officials, such as priests and kings; in
specially designated sacred places, such as temples and images; and in natural
objects, such as rivers, the sun, mountains, or trees. The priest is a special
agent in the religious cult, his ritual
actions represent the divine action. Similarly, the king or emperor is a
special mediator between heaven and earth and has been called by such names as
the "son of heaven," or an "arm of god." (see also priesthood,
sacred kingship) |
|
|
Just as certain persons are consecrated, so specific places are designated as
the "gate of heaven." Temples and shrines are recognized by devotees
as places where special attitudes and restrictions prevail because they are the
abode of the sacred. Likewise, certain images of God (and sacred books) are held
to be uniquely powerful and true (pure) expressions of divine reality. The image
and the temple are, in traditional societies, not simply productions by
individual artists and architects; they are reflections of the sacred essence of
life, and their measurements and forms are specified through sacred
communication from the divine sphere. In this same context, natural objects can
be imbued with sacred power. The sun, for example, is the embodiment of the
power of life, the source of all human consciousness, the central pivot for the
eternal rhythm and order of existence. Or, a river, such as the Nile for the
ancient Egyptians and the Ganges for the Hindu, gave witness to the power of
life incarnated in geography. Sacred mountains (e.g., Sinai for Jews,
Kailasa for Hindus, Fujiyama for Japanese) were particular loci of divine
power, law, and truth. (see also sacred place,
iconography) |
|
|
|
|
|
The sacred, by definition, pervades all dimensions of life. Within the kind
of religious apprehension that is expressed in sacred myth and ritual, however,
there is a special focus on time, place (cosmos), and active agents (heroes,
ancestors, divinities). When existence is seen in terms of the dichotomy of
sacred and profane--which assumes that the sacred is wholly other than, yet
necessary for, everyday existence--it is very important to know and to get in
contact with the sacred. In periodic festivals men celebrate sacred time; a
sacred calendar marks off the intervals of man's life, and these sacred
festivals provide the pattern for productive and joyous living. |
|
|
Seasonal sacred calendars
are especially important in predominantly agricultural
societies. In the very order of nature, people see that different seasons have
their distinct values. These differences are celebrated with spring festivals
(when the world is re-created through ritual expressions of generation) and
harvest festivals (of thanksgiving and of protecting the life force in seeds for
the next spring). Here time is regarded as cyclical, and one's life is marked by
those rituals in which one continually returns to the divine source. |
|
|
Similarly, the myths and rituals mark off the world (cosmos)
into places that have special sacred significance. The territory in which one
lives is real insofar as it is in contact with the divine reality. Within this
territory is life; outside it is chaos, danger, and demons. Throughout most of
history the "sacred world" was coextensive with a certain territory,
and one could speak literally of Christian lands, the Jewish homeland, the
Muslim world, the place of the noble people (Aryavarta, Hindu), or the
central kingdom (China). Consecrating one's possession of land with certain
rituals was equal to establishing an order with divine sanction. In Vedic
ritual, for example, the erection of a fire altar (in which the god
Agni--fire--was present) was the establishment of a cosmos on a microcosmic
scale. Once a cosmos is established, there are certain places that are
especially sacred. Certain rivers, mountains, groves of trees, caves, or human
constructions such as temples, shrines, or cities provide the "gate,"
"ladder," "navel," or "pole" between heaven and
earth. This sacred place is that which both allows the sacred power to flow into
existence and gives order and stability to life. (see also
hierophany) |
|
|
Another dimension of the sacred is divine or heroic activity: the decisive
action done by creative or protective agents. One's spiritual ancestors need not
be biologically defined ancestors; they may not even be human. They are the
essential forces on which survival depends and can be embodied in animal skills
(longevity, rebirth, magical skills), in the "ways of the ancients,"
or through a special hero who has provided present existence with material and
spiritual benefits. If the notion of sacred manifestation is extended to include
the social relationships (especially tabus) in a community, then communal
relations can be viewed as a dimension through which the sacred is manifested.
Here human values are sacralized by social restraints that prescribe--e.g.,
with whom one can eat or whom one can marry or kill. The establishment of a
community requires forming certain relationships; and these relationships are
sacred when they bear the power of ultimate, eternal, cosmic force. For example,
the consecration of a king or emperor in traditional agricultural societies was
the establishment of a system of allegiance and order for society. (see also
hero worship) |
|
|
By extending the notion of "sacralization" to include human
reorganization of experience within the context of any absolute norm, the sacred
can be seen in such dimensions of life as history, self-consciousness,
aesthetics, and philosophical reflection (conceptualization). Each of these
modes of human experience can become the creative force whereby some people have
"become real" and gained the most profound understanding of
themselves. |
|
|
|
|
|
Phenomenologists of religion who use the concept "sacred" as a
universal term for the basis of religion differ in their estimation of the
nature of the sacred manifestation. Otto and van der Leeuw hold (in different
formulations) that the sacred is a reality that transcends the apprehension of
the sacred in symbols or rituals. The forms (ideograms) through which the sacred
is expressed are secondary and are simply reactions to the "wholly
other." Kristensen and Eliade, on the other
hand, regard the sacred reality to be available through the particular symbols
or ways of apprehending the sacred. Thus, Kristensen places emphasis on how the
sacred is apprehended, and Eliade describes different modalities of the sacred,
while Otto looks beyond the forms toward a meta-empirical source. |
|
|
A second problem is the continuing question of whether or not the sacred is a
universal category. There are religious expressions from various parts of the
world that clearly manifest the kind of structure of religious awareness
characterized above. It is especially apropos of some aspects in the religion of
nonliterate societies, the ancient Near East, and some popular devotional
aspects of Hinduism. There is, however, a serious question regarding the
usefulness of this structure in interpreting a large part of Chinese religion,
the social relationships (dharma) in Hinduism, the effort to achieve
superconscious awareness in Hinduism (Yoga), Jainism, Buddhism (Zen), some forms
of Taoism, and some contemporary (modern) options of total commitment that,
nevertheless, reject the notion of an absolute source and goal essentially
different from human existence. If one takes the notion of sacred as something
above (beyond, different from) the religious structure dominated by divine or
transcendent activity (described above), then this suggests that the notion of
sacredness should not be limited to that structure. Thus, some scholars have
found it confusing to use the notion of sacred as a universal religious quality,
for it has been accepted by many religious people and by scholars of religion as
referring to only one (though important) type of religious consciousness. |
|
|
The 20th-century discussion of the nature and manifestation of the sacred
includes other approaches than those of scholars in the comparative study of
religions. For example, Sri Aurobindo, a Hindu
mystic-philosopher, speaks of the supreme reality as the
"Consciousness-Force"; and Nishida
Kitaro, a Japanese philosopher, expresses his apprehension of universal
reality as that of "absolute Nothingness." Martin
Heidegger, a German philosopher, speaks of "the holy" as that
dimension of existence through which there is the illumination of the things
that are, though it is no absolute Being prior to existence; rather it is a
creative act at the point of engaging the Nothing (Nichts). In contrast,
the Protestant theologian Karl
Barth rejects philosophical reflection or mystical insight for
apprehending the sacred, and insists that personal acceptance of God's
self-revelation in a particular historical form, Jesus Christ, is the place to
begin any awareness of what philosophers call "ultimate." |
|
|
Sociologists who study religion have, since Durkheim, usually identified the
sacred with social values that claim a supernatural basis. Nevertheless, the
sacred has been identified predominantly as found in the social occasions
(festivals) that disrupt the common social order (by Caillois), or as the
reinforcing of social activities that secure a given social structure (by Howard
Becker). During the 1960s, however, the usual definition of religion as those
sacred activities which claimed a transcendent source was questioned by some
empirical scholars. For example, Thomas Luckmann, a German-American sociologist,
described the sacred in modern society as that "strata of significance to
which everyday life is ultimately referred"; and this definition includes
such themes as "the autonomous individual" and "the mobility
ethos." |
|
|
|
|
|
The problems of defining and investigating religion mentioned above are
already expressive of the shifts in modern consciousness regarding the sacred.
Both the physical and social sciences have given modern man a new image of
himself and techniques for improving his present life. The acceptance of
rational and critical perspectives for judging the claims of religious
authorities in Europe since the 18th century, plus the development of historical
criticism and a sense of historical relativism, has contributed to the
affirmation of man as basically a secular person. The once absolute authorities
in the West (the Bible, priest, rabbi) are no longer the prime sources for one's
self-identity. To a growing extent the cultures in the East are also
experiencing a loss of their traditional authorities. Some attempts have been
made to resacralize contemporary cosmology, history, and personal experience by
(1) extending the scope of religious concerns to "secular" areas such
as politics, economics, personality development, and art; and (2) modifying
theological positions, ethical norms, and liturgical forms to incorporate new
modes of expression and to experiment with new styles of living. |
|
|
An important 20th-century development in religious life has been the easy
flow of information between religious communities on different continents. This
has provided an opportunity for experimenting with religious forms from outside
the traditionally acceptable forms in a culture. During the 1950s and 1960s, for
example, Yoga and Zen meditation were serious religious options for some
Westerners and a form of experimentation for large numbers. The concern to
experiment with personal experience and with styles of living during the 1960s
in the West has itself been considered an important religious expression by some
commentators. These years saw considerable exploration in exotic experience with
psychedelic drugs, many attempts to set up new communities for group living
(communes)--though few lasted more than a year--and a shift in the values of
middle class youth from a concern for personal economic security to social and
experiential concerns. These recent activities may be viewed as attempts to
recapture the experience of the sacred. |
|
|
Throughout the past hundred years a number of philosophers and social
scientists have asserted the disappearance of the sacred and predicted the
demise of religion. A study of the history of religions shows that religious
forms change and that there has never been unanimity on the nature and
expression of religion. Whether or not man is now in a new situation for
developing structures of ultimate values radically different from those provided
in the traditionally affirmed awareness of the sacred is a vital question. The
suggestion that a radically different kind of reality is possible is, of course,
nonsense for those to whom the sacred already has been manifested once and for
all in a particular form. |
|
|
(F.J.S.) |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
