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.

RELEVANCE FOR 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 those who participated in it. Other times the ritual falls flat and leaves one scratching their head 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."

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. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. 267 pp.

_________. Teaching Ritual. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. 300 pp.

Bradshaw, Paul, and John Melloh, eds. Foundations in Ritual Studies. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007. 220 pp.

Cooke, Bernard and Gary Macy. Christian Symbol and Ritual: An Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. 170 pp.

Driver, Thomas. Liberating Rites: Understanding the Liberating Power of Ritual. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1998. 240 pp.

Grimes, Ronald. Beginnings in Ritual Studies. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1982. 270 pp.

Mitchell, Nathan. Liturgy and the Social Sciences. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1999. 90 pp.

Turner, Victor. The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure. Aldine Transaction: 1995. 200 pp.

Anderson, H., and E. Foley. Mighty Stories, Dangerous Rituals. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1998. 185 pp.

Bell, Catherine. Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. 200 pp.

Grimes, Ronald. Deeply into the Bone: Reinventing Rites of Passage. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2002. 250 pp.

Muir, Edward. Ritual in Early Modern Europe. 2nd ed. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2005. 300 pp.

van Gennep, Arnold. Rites of Passage. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961. 180 pp.