Reading Religious Ritual with Ricoeur: Between Fragility and Hope

(Hardback)

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Reading Religious Ritual with Ricoeur: Between Fragility and Hope creates a dialogue between Ricurs hermeneutic philosophy and the interpretation of human ritual practices. In the first part of the book, Christina M. Gschwandtner shows that Ricurs account of religion would be deepened if it were to take into account not only the biblical texts but also forms of liturgical expression. She challenges Ricurs early reading of the symbol and second navet, extends his interpretation of biblical texts and faith to consider religious actions more fully, and suggests that ritual can enhance human capacities. The second part of the book employs Ricurs hermeneutics to shed light on the analysis of liturgy, demonstrating that his accounts of truth, of the world of the text, of religious language, of the imagination, and of the formation of identity are all eminently applicable to liturgical experience. Reading Religious Ritual with Ricoeur argues that one of the most significant themes in Ricurs workthe tension between fragility and hopeis especially helpful for understanding what liturgy does and how it functions. Seeing how liturgy and ritual configure fragility and hope also enriches Ricurs account of the role and function of religion in human experience.

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Reading Religious Ritual with Ricoeur provides a thought-provoking explication of an important part of religious experience that would do well to become standard reading for scholars, philosophers, and those who partake in religious ritual.

Author Bio

Christina M. Gschwandtner is professor of continental philosophy of religion at Fordham University.