Reference no: EM133815224
Assignment:
Please disagree with this post
Religion: a set of beliefs and practices regarding the supernatural. I experience religion in my everyday life all the time. I consider myself a Christian and thus I adhere to that religion, but I'm also familiar with some other religions and their beliefs. I also think that some people experience religion in more individualistic ways. I know several people who don't necessarily adhere to a specific religion but choose aspects of other established religions to believe in combination. I think this is still within the definition of religion.
Ritual: a religious practice that is performed for a spiritual purpose under specific circumstances. Communion is a ritual in Christianity that I have experience with. Communion is done during most Christian church services for the purpose of connecting worshippers with Jesus Christ and with one another.
Priest: a person whose primary occupation is serving as an intermediary between members of a religion and the supernatural or spiritual powers in whom they believe. Although they go by a different name, I think that Imams in Islam fit the definition of a priest. An Imam's purpose in Islam is to educate the members of his Mosque on the word of Allah and the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed. In this way, they serve as an authoritative figure in the religion and connect the average worshipper with the religion.
In the gateway reading about Catholic Mass in Ghana, the author discussed the incorporation of native rituals into Catholic Mass in order to adapt the Catholic rituals to the Ghanian culture. The article specifically mentioned several rituals: " [The Catholic Church] reluctantly and slowly started to adopt or incorporate Ghanaian culture into certain aspects of the Mass celebration such as drumming, singing of African folksongs and playing of xylophone during the Mass celebration." (Quan-Baffour). Drumming, singing and xylophone are all examples of acts with spiritual meaning, conducted under certain cultural and religious circumstances. I think its interesting that the Catholic Church decided to incorporate these rituals into Mass in Ghana because Catholicism has many of its own rituals that historically have been relatively standardized across geography. I would be interested to understand the debate amongst Catholic clergy as to whether or not to include local Ghanian rituals, and the specific reason why the Church's view has changed so recently.