Death, Ritual and Belief by Douglas Davies

Author:Douglas Davies
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury UK

Books and words

Judaism and Islam both represent religions of the book. This foundational source derives its power, very largely, from the belief that the sacred text was God-given and comprises divine revelation. The growth of traditions of biblical study, exegesis and preaching along with formal liturgies all gave to such words a power which enhanced humanity’s commitment to language as its very partner in self-consciousness (Goody, 1977: 112ff.; 1986: 1ff.). Here the great traditions of official theologies often influence rituals which may become extremely durable and permeate the cultures of many societies. That very durability provides local communities with religious formulae which they may make their own through local practice and, as it were, the accent of their own world view. The words which ensue become all the more powerful as a rhetoric of death, and against death, for they are the very words of an ongoing and living community. In the case of Christianity and Islam, in particular, they are also words of communities which see themselves as expansionist and capable of transforming human nature and commitment into a higher order of service and submission to God. As such, they well express Bloch’s idea of a rebounding conquest. It is the very human nature which has, symbolically, died to itself in order to be submitted to God which now dies, physically, so that it may be resurrected to a new reality with God.

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