Ritual and Heroism: A Study in Cross Cultural Religious Practices and Religious Personalities

Abstract

In this article, the author argues that heavily ritualized cultures need heroic religious personalities to sustain their hierarchical structures. The religious hero becomes the central symbol of what is socially peripheral in the culture, and though these heroes are thought to perform superhuman altruistic deeds, they actually are the cornerstone of the maintenance of oppressive social orders. While the heroic or resigned religious posture is a legitimately religious posture, the author argues for the superiority of an aesthetic religious posture in light of anthropological and psychological studies of religion.