Ritual among the Scilohtac: Global Catholicism, the Nacirema, and Interfaith Studies

More than six decades after its publication, Horace Miner’s 1956 article “Body Ritual among the Nacirema” remains a reliable pedagogical tool, remarkably successful in helping students see their own ethnocentric biases. Catholics & Cultures has potential to do similar work. The site lacks some of what makes Miner’s text so effective, in particular its capacity to bring about a sudden shift in perception. The site also shares some of the article’s limitations, particularly in focusing on ritual to the relative exclusion of other aspects of religion. That said, the site can help students gain the religious literacy and develop the dispositions needed for interfaith engagement. In addition, especially in the context of Catholic education, the site addresses a theological need in the Church by fostering what Stan Chu Ilo has called “a hermeneutics of multiplicity and inclusion

Holiness and humour

Although Christian spirituality includes a long tradition of suspicion of humour, humour can express and further holiness in several ways. Humour serves holiness in religious satire; it can also communicate the self-transcendent perspective of holy women and men. Humour and holiness can also illuminate each other because both are inherently relational. Christian holiness consists primarily in right relationship to the Holy One and, thus, to others. Humour’s complex relational nature is examined with the help of Ted Cohen’s analysis of joke-telling and evolutionary and cognitive research. Humour and its primary expression, laughter, are inherently ambiguous, capable of expressing and creating a range of attitudes and relationships; consequently, they can both conduce to and hinder holiness. Finally, humour can contribute to the religious imagination, and thus to holiness, by challenging established images of the holy, inviting fresh theological reflection, and inspiring ethical action. Both holiness and humour require openness to that which is beyond us and agility in responding to the other.Prof Dr. Anita Houck is chair and associate Professor of Religious Studies at St Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Indiana, and is part of the research project, ‘Biblical Theology and Hermeneutics: Holiness’, directed by Prof Dr. Andries van Aarde, professor emeritus and senior research fellow in the Faculty of Theology of the University of Pretoria, South Africa.http://www.hts.org.zaam2016New Testament Studie