“Where Two or Three Are Gathered”
“Where Two or Three Are Gathered”
Ritualizing Moral Agency
This chapter talks about how activists utilize religious ritual to strengthen moral commitment and moral agency within the movement. Religious ritual gives activists a way to cultivate collective identity, offer low-risk participation, challenge the boundaries of sacred and profane, and display embodied testimony. Through ritual practice, activists “re-member” the sacred, or expand the places and persons included in its scope. Yet, the use of religious ritual is also vulnerable to becoming a form of theater for political expediency, losing its larger meaning and legitimacy. In order for religious ritual to maintain its integrity, its power, and its meaning, religious activists must build and maintain connections with other more continuous worshipping communities.
Keywords: religious ritual, moral agency, collective identity, political expediency, religious activists, worshipping communities
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