Theological Practices

Abstract

Abstract Having established cognitive nature of religious practices, this chapter examines them in a theological register. On account of its inherent cognitive effects, the meaning of liturgy is not exclusively ‘symbolic’ (i.e., arbitrarily related to its forms by means of conventions), but is also ‘embodied’: particular ritual forms convey specific theological content by virtue of their cognitive effects. Consequently, liturgy is not merely an ‘expression’ of a pre-existing theology; rather, the bodily and material form of the liturgy intrinsically contains theological content. Liturgy is therefore itself a storehouse of theology; differences in liturgical forms underpin differences in theological content; attention to liturgical practices serves as a corrective for an exclusive focus on propositional beliefs which are formulated linguistically; and liturgy becomes a central feature of theological anthropology rather than a footnote to ecclesiology. Given this revised picture of liturgy, the formative potential of embodied practices is highlighted. Findings for cognitive science suggest that humans are particularly open to being formed by their experience. The habitual nature of religious practices allows them to contribute to the inculcation of virtue (or vice), and indeed particular findings from embodied cognition research identify virtue-related cognitive effects. From a theological perspective, embodied cognition illuminates how liturgical practices might contribute to the process of sanctification. The embodied nature of religious practice can again be understood as an accommodation to the way in which humans are formed and transformed.