Trumpism as Grief Culture
What we need most are temporal structures that stabilize life. When everything is short-term, life loses all stability. Stability comes over long stretches of time: faithfulness, bonds, integrity, commitment, promises, trust. These are the social practices that hold a community together. They all have a ritual character. They all require a lot of t... See more
Noema • All That Is Solid Melts Into Information
Ritual practice becomes an easy way to locate someone along this denominational spectrum; as a result, ritual practice becomes the shorthand for particular Jewish identity. Ethics and moral standards become less significant than affiliation and belonging, often receiving less public emphasis or attention. This hierarchy of true ideas and binding pr
... See moreRabbi Bradley Shavit DHL Artson • God of Becoming and Relationship: The Dynamic Nature of Process Theology
He focuses specifically upon the role of ritual in helping to come to this state. He writes, “Closure is important in all transitions, but after a death, there are rites of passage for the survivors as well as for the deceased. Completion of their ritual responsibilities . . . moves the living into a new phase of life. When survivors aren’t allowed
... See moreFrancis Weller • The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief
Rituals confer meaning, Schillace reminds us; we have lost the power of the latter as we have come to scoff at the apparent vacuity of the former. She points us to other traditions that heavily ritualise death: the Toraja of Indonesia who ‘bury their dead in a variety of ways … occasionally … keeping them at home.