It
occurred to me to make a list of aspects of Ordinary religious practice as I
believe they take place. Also, it might
be good to include some aspects that Albanese includes from the book America
Religions and Religion.
Ordinary
practice, as earlier defined is the day to day practice of a particular faith
tradition not encompassing a dynamic encounter with the divine, or in other
words an otherwise mystical or super-spiritual experience. That is to say that it is the repetition of
religious practice as it occurs in our day to day life.
- A few ordinary religious practices would be:
- Weekly Church Service
- Weddings, Baptisms, Funerals, and other like ceremonies
- Religious text study in context with worship
- Communal food taking within a religious context
- Similar style of dress or uniform
- Articles of faith
- Cultural rules of belief
In
general, the list includes the aspects that are the cultural bulwark of the
institutional practice, an aspect that Albanese suggests are the
"...ordinary religion can reveal itself in the many customs and folkways
that are part of a culture: expected ways of greeting people; wedding etiquette
concerning clothes, manners, and obligations; habits of diet; and holiday
behavior, to mention a few." Each
of these aspects, she says, convey the "values of a society" and the
means of identifying their distinct social boundaries of practice. These practices become the social
"glue" of the culture and "reinforces the bonds between members
of a society."
While
the list could become extensive, at its most surface level the practice or
ordinary religion celebrates the ideas of the extraordinary while keeping the
wider practice grounded in the day to day practice.
