Winter 2011/Pasadena
TC848/548
Johnson

TC848/548: RITUAL STUDIES. Todd E. Johnson.


DESCRIPTION: This is a 6-unit doctoral seminar; the 500-level, 4-unit course is open to a limited number of master's level students by special permission. To study the people of God at worship is to study ritual. There can be no legitimate study of worship without taking into consideration the actual practice and action of the people involved. The challenge, however, is to move from simple description to evaluation. How does one determine what a ritual means? How does one appraise the enacted meaning in relationship to the intended meaning of the ritual? This course will explore various models of anthropological analysis of Christian practices as means of generating data for theological reflection and appraising pastoral praxis. Secondarily, this course will examine pedagogical strategies for using participant observation in teaching.

SIGNIFICANCE FOR LIFE AND MINISTRY: Planning worship may begin in either the pastor's study or the worship committee meeting, but its fruits are not born until the plans are enacted. At times the actual worship service fulfills the expectations of the planners as well as the participants. Other times the ritual falls flat and leaves people scratching their heads wondering what went wrong. This course will explore the move from idea to implementation, as well as from action to evaluation to revised action. So central is this field to the ministry of worship that it is often called "pastoral liturgy."

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

  1. To obtain an overview of discipline of ritual studies and the philosophical paradigms that support the various approaches to studying ritual.

  2. To acquire knowledge of various schools of thought in ritual studies and how this applies to correlating theological models.

  3. To explore the use of participant observation in research and teaching Christian worship.

  4. To apply principles of ritual studies to the rites and offices of the pastoral ministry within one's ecclesial context.

  5. To develop resources for teaching ritual studies within a worship course or as a stand-alone course.

SEMINAR FORMAT: The seminar will meet weekly for three-hour sessions. It will have some lectures by the professor, but will be mostly seminar presentations and discussions.

REQUIRED READING:
Course Reader. 200 pp.

Bell, Catherine. Ritual: Perspectives and Dimensions. Rev. ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. 267 pp. ISBN: 9780199735105. Retail price: $24.95.

_________. Teaching Ritual. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. 300 pp. ISBN: 9780195176469. Retail price: $24.99.

Bradshaw, Paul, and John Melloh, eds. Foundations in Ritual Studies. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007. 220 pp. ISBN: 9780801034992. Retail price: $26.

Cooke, Bernard, and Gary Macy. Christian Symbol and Ritual: An Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. 170 pp. ISBN: 9780195154122. Retail price: $25.

Driver, Thomas. Liberating Rites: Understanding the Liberating Power of Ritual. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1998. 240 pp. ISBM: 9781419642104. Retail price: $18.99.

Grimes, Ronald. Beginnings in Ritual Studies. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1982. 270 pp. ISBN: 9781570030014. Retail price: $29.95

Mitchell, Nathan. Liturgy and the Social Sciences. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1999. 90 pp. ISBN: 9780814625118. Retail price: $16.95.

RECOMMENDED READING:
Anderson, H., and E. Foley. Mighty Stories, Dangerous Rituals. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1998. 185 pp. ISBN 9780787956486. Retail price: $18.95.

Bell, Catherine. Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. 200 pp. ISBN: 9780199733627. Retail price: $24.95.

Grimes, Ronald. Deeply into the Bone: Reinventing Rites of Passage. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2002. 250 pp. ISBN: 9780520236752. Retail price: $27.95.

Muir, Edward. Ritual in Early Modern Europe. 2nd ed. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. 300 pp. ISBN: 9780521602408. Retail price: $32.99.

Rappaport, Roy. Ritual and Religion and the Making of Humanity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. 500pp. ISBN: 9780521296908. Retail price: $34.99.

Turner, Victor. The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure. Aldine Transaction: 1995. 200 pp. ISBN: 9780202011905. Retail price: $19.95.

van Gennep, Arnold. Rites of Passage. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961. 180 pp. ISBN: 9780226848495. Retail price: $15.

ASSIGNMENTS: (1) Completion of assigned readings, participation in our class discussions and attendance [10%]. (2) A short (1-2 page) paper reflecting on either an assigned reading or a participant observation experience [10%]. (3) Three consecutive weeks of participant observation of the same ritual within the same community. This will be reported on in class [20%]. (4) Either (a) an entire syllabus of a Ritual Studies class (College or beyond); or, (b) a rough draft of the syllabus of a worship class (College or beyond) with a detailed section on ritual studies. In both cases you must include learning outcomes, class topics, readings, and a participant observation topic [10%]. (5) A class presentation of one's research in progress. Use of handouts, videos, or whatever materials the student would find helpful in making one's presentation is encouraged [20%]. (6) A paper in which the student defines a particular model of ritual study and evaluates it in terms of its relevance to liturgical studies. This assignment will be adjusted in both scope and length for master's level students. All students will be required to submit this paper at the end of this quarter [30%].

PREREQUISITES: For master's level students: permission of the instructor.

RELATIONSHIP TO CURRICULUM: Required for doctoral students with a Christian Worship concentration.

This ECD is a reliable guide to the course design but is subject to modification. (October 2010)