Ritual Participation and Interreligious Dialogue Boundaries, Transgressions and Innovations

Shared ritual practices, multi-faith celebrations, and interreligious prayers are becoming increasingly common in the USA and Europe as more people experience religious diversity first hand. While ritual participation can be seen as a powerful expression of interreligious solidarity, it also carries with it challenges of a particularly sensitive nature. Though celebrating and worshiping together can enhance interreligious relations, cross-riting may also lead some believers to question whether it is appropriate to engage in the rituals of another faith community. Some believers may consider cross-ritual participation as inappropriate transgressive behaviour.

Bringing together leading international contributors and voices from a number of religious traditions, Ritual Participation and Interreligious Dialogue delves into the complexities and intricacies of the phenomenon. They ask: what are the promises and perils of celebrating and praying together? What are the limits of ritual participation? How can we make sense of feelings of discomfort when entering the sacred space of another faith community? The first book to focus on the lived dimensions of interreligious dialogue through ritual participation rather than textual or doctrinal issues, this innovative volume opens an entirely new perspective.

Marianne Moyaert is Professor and Chair of Comparative Theology and the Hermeneutics of Interreligious Dialogue at the Vrije University Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She is also guest lecturer at the KU Leuven, Belgium, teaching Jewish-Christian Relations.

Joris Geldhof is Professor of Liturgical Studies and Sacramental Theology at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, KU Leuven, Belgium.

1. Introduction, Marianne Moyaert (Free University of Amsterdam)
Part 1: Interdisciplinary Approaches
2. Enlightened Presuppositions of (Spiritually Motivated) Cross-Ritual Participation, Walter Van Herck (University of Antwerp, Belgium)
3. Theorizing Ritual for Inter-Religious Practice, James Farwell (Virginia Theological Seminary, USA)
4. On Doing What Others Do: Intentions and Institutions, S. Mark Heim (Andover Newton Theological School, USA)
Part 2: Christian Theological Perspectives
5. Towards and Open Eucharist, Richard Kearney (Boston College, USA)
6. Interreligious Ritual Participation: Insights from Inter-Christian Ritual Participation, Martha Moore Keish (Columbia Theological Seminary, USA)
7. Religion is as Religion Does: Interfaith Prayer as a Form of Ritual Participation , Douglas Pratt (University of Birmingham, UK)
Part 3: Muslim and Muslim-Christian Perspectives
8. Receiving the Stranger: A Muslim Theology of Shared Worship, Timothy Winter (Wolfson College, Cambridge, UK)
9. Back-and-Forth-Riting: The Dynamics of Christian-Muslim Encounters in Shrine Rituals, Bagus Laksana (Sanata Dharma University in Yogyakarta, Indonesia)
10. Interreligious Prayer between Roman Catholic Christians and Muslims, Gavin D'Costa (University of Bristol, UK)
Part IV: Christian and East Asian Religious Perspectives
11. Offering and Receiving Hospitality: The Meaning of Ritual Participation in the Hindu Temple, Anant Rambachan (Saint Olaf College, USA)
12. The Practice of Zazen as Ritual Performance, André Van der Braak (Free University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
13. Bowing to Buddha and Allah? Reflections on Crossing over Ritual Boundaries, Maria Reis Habito (Elijah Interfaith Institute)
Part V: Jewish and Jewish-Christian Perspectives
4. Transgressing and Setting Ritual Boundaries: A Puzzling Paradox, Rachel Reedijk (Free University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
15. Mourning the Loss of My Daughter: The Failure of Inter-Faith Bereavement Rituals, Anya Topolski (Centre for Ethics, Social and Political Philosophy, Belgium)
16. Parameters of Hospitality for Interreligious Participation: A Jewish Perspective, Ruther Langer (Boston College, USA)
17. Epilogue, Joris Geldhof (Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium)
Bibliography
Index