Renewing ritual cultures
paternal authority, filial piety, and the ethos of self-submission in Christianity and confucianism
pp. 237-291
in: David Solomon, Ruiping Fan, Pingcheung Lo (eds), Ritual and the moral life, Berlin, Springer, 2012Abstract
This chapter examines a cultural renewal that focuses on traditional communities with their particular life worlds, norms, and rituals. This essay acknowledges the legitimacy of the quest for a universal impact of cultural renewal. But this quest for universality, so this essay argues, does not have to be construed in terms of claims to compelling rational arguments. It can instead be construed in terms of an invitation. As invitation, it must offer what is universally acknowledged as desirable. In the context of our investigation into the possibility of cultural renewal, we can proceed under the assumption that it is precisely that encompassing meaning for people's personal life along with that of their surroundings which may serve as an initial (and so far not further specified) placeholder for what is thus universally desirable. This essay explores those traditional Christians and traditional Confucians who, precisely by endorsing paternal authority, filial piety, and an ethos of self-submission, attend to those very personalising frameworks which the dominant social democratic mainstream discounts. Such traditional Christianity and Confucianism seek universal recognition not primarily through discursive appeals to values or norms. Instead, they promote the universal appeal of their particular cultures through a revived awareness of the significance of rituals.