Thou Shalt Not Perform Rituals
That’s a lesson Alex Knapp gleans from several passages of the Bible, namely Jesus’ exhortation to pray in private and in secret (Matthew 6:5-8), his proclamation that the forgiveness of your sins depends on your forgiveness of the sins of others, and his commandment to love and be known by love (John 13:34-35). He’s half right.
Knapp writes: “I consider this concept — Christ’s condemnation of ritual in favor of love; his condemnation of identifying yourself as righteous — to be the central message of the New Testament.” Putting aside whether this condemnation is the New Testament’s central message, it is a mistake to oppose ritual to love. There’s perhaps nothing more antithetical to the Gospels than self-righteousness, but rituals don’t have to be displays of self-righteousness. Ritual can and often does express more about the practitioner’s self-imagining than about his or her deity, but ritual can also be a way of expressing love for others and for the absolute other that has nothing to do with a “Look at me!” disposition.
Reading and reflecting on the scriptures constitutes of ritual—and even a liturgy. The first half of the Roman Catholic Mass is the Liturgy of the Word, a ritual hearing the Word of God that needn’t have the slightest shred of self-righteousness in its practice. The other half of the Mass is the Liturgy of the Eucharist, a liturgy that originated, at least textually, with the scriptural command “Do this in memory of me,” a call to ritual if there ever was one.
Rather than oppose ritual to love, it makes more sense to contrast self-righteous ritual with self-giving (loving) ritual. Focusing the lens of condemnation on self-righteousness, rather than on ritual, in no way removes the subversive character of the biblical idea. It still subverts the history of Christendom, the self-righteous-imbued perversion of genuine Christianity that has been, regrettably, much more prevalent and visible than the real thing.
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The idea of love without ritual, i.e, without a place for a community to form its imagination, is just setting people up to fail.
And belief that love is possible without grace – and grace isn’t a magic spiritual elixir infused extra-historically, but is infused precisely in our history of relationships and rituals – is Pelagianism.
Kyle, I agree.
An additional thought: as human beings, we are bodily creatures — and that means we benefit from physical signs…. in other words, rituals! Rituals are a necessary and fulfilling part of human existence. Think of birthday parties, celebrations, mourning rites, wedding ceremonies, sports events, you name it. And in the religious sphere, there is a reason why sacraments are the way they are — namely, an outward sign of inward grace.
Love without rituals?
If Alex Knapp is married, I’ll bet he gave his wife a ring and stood up to repeat vows.