HUC-JIR Syllabus

Rite Ritual and the Process of Worship: Introduction to Synagogue 2000

Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman
Hebrew Union College, Autumn, 1996

[Note: This is a two-semester course. The first semester introduces the student to the
academic discipline of ritual studies. The second semester gives the student access to the
practical application of ritual studies in what has become the Synagogue 2000 program.
Ritual Studies is the term I use for the study of how ritual works and why people ritualize
their lives. As I use the term, it includes also a theological perspective on ritual, and
considerable attention to the sociological and anthropological analysis of modernism and
post-modernism.
The syllabus that follows will take us through the first semester as well as a good
portion of the second. But the second semester is only partially described. By the end of
the first semester, we will be in a position, as a class, to determine our own agenda and
define our own path through the semester’s work. That means that we will add topics as
we feel the need to do so. In addition, we will spend a fair amount of time with guests in
class, people involved with successful synagogue transformation, especially in the
Synagogue 2000 system.]

Introduction

One problem with discussions on "prayer in our time" is that the people doing the
discussing are usually ignorant about both: "prayer" on one hand, and "our time"
on the other. They make the mistake of thinking that inhabiting the 20th century
makes them experts in it -- a dubious hypothesis indeed. Similarly, they assume
that because they pray or try to, they must be expert in worship; they forget that
even people who do not pray may claim that precisely because they used to, they
are now such experts that they have gone beyond the whole muddled enterprise.

These people write copiously on what seems self evident to them on the grounds of their
own or (if they are cantors or rabbis) their congregational members' experience. Since the basis
for their argument is experiential, they appeal in the long run to what seems obvious to "anyone
who looks hard enough." They quote each other on this score, so that it appears that they are
citing the literature on the subject. But in fact, the "literature" cited is largely unsubstantiated
argument with no theoretical basis; it either reflects what we think anyway or it does not; we like
it or we don't; but there is little to argue about -- since the "argument" is still in the realm of what
is "obvious to anyone."

Both "Prayer" and "our time" are complex entities, each outfitted with considerable
thought and theory. This course is equally about both: the nature of prayer, in general, and the
special characteristics of "our time," in which we try to pray today. You can't discuss "prayer"
without such details as Bernstein's linguistic codes, High/Low context, symbol vs. sign, ritual
"synch" and the like; or with no concern for worship's sense-making function, and the artistic
mode of constructing meaning. For "our time" you need secularization theory, the privatization of
religion, plausibility structures and finite provinces of meaning, religion as functionalism, and grid
and group analysis.

The most important thing is what you bring to our discussions. The most natural thing in
the world for you all will be to bring your critical faculty to bear upon the writers you encounter,
and then in class, to find all the areas where they are wrong. That is how you got through
university: demonstrating you could critique brilliant people. I want you to do just the opposite
here -- not tear down but build up. Most of the people we read are neither Jews nor
commentators on Jewish worship. Please read them asking yourself this question: if they were
Jews and if they were writing about Jewish worship, what would they be saying? Decide where
they are (or may be) right, not wrong. Come to class with an exciting idea that you got from
them, and ask yourself, "If that idea is correct, what follows in terms of the matters that interest
us?"

Our class time will be spent sharing the ideas you bring, and helping each other flesh them
out in new ways. The atmosphere of the class should be more of a think tank than a competition
for time and attention. I will have my own agenda too -- the exciting ideas that I get from all the
readings. But we will spend considerable time just thinking together.

What follows is a tentative schedule of topics and readings. Usually classes develop their
own particular ambience, which determines their preferred direction. I may at any time, therefore,
assign or delete readings listed here; expect that we will not cover everything that we set out to
do; conversations have a life of their own, and may stretch from one class to another.

Moreover, I have in the wings a syllabus for "Rite and Ritual II" the sequel to this course
that will be available for you in the Spring. I may take a reading from there and introduce it here,
if the time seems ripe. Similarly, some of the names you anticipate here may not occur until there.
What you have in hand now should be seen as a basic introduction to the field, an attempt to see
worship from a multitude of perspectives, and the accumulation of a shared vocabulary with
which to operate.

Topics: Semester One

[The division into semesters is tentative, an educated guess at how far we ought to get in
the first half of the year. The actual amount of time spent on each topic varies from year to
year.]

1. The Will to Ritualize

Michael Novak, The Joy of Sports (New York: Basic Books, 1976), pp. 18-34 .

Thomas F. O’Meara, "Field of Grace," Notre Dame Magazine (Fall, 1991): 12-14.

Robert N. Bellah, "Civil Religion in America" and "American Civil Religion in the
1970's," in Russel E. Richey and Donald G. Jones, American Civil Religion (New
York: Harper and Rowe, 1974), pp. 21-44, 255-272.

Lawrence A. Hoffman, The Art of Public Prayer, Introduction and chapter 1 (25
pp.).

David I. Kertzer, Ritual, Politics, and Power (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988),
p. 15.

Robert Wuthnow, "Sources of Personal Identity: Religion, Ethnicity, and the American
Cultural Situation," Religion and American Culture 2 (1992): p. 2 (on Princeton).

Susan Starr Sered, "Sacralizing the Feminine: Food Preparation as a Religious
Activity," in Sered, Women as Ritual Experts (New York and Oxford:
University of Oxford Press, 1992), pp. 87-102.

Total reading: 101 pp.

Our goal here is to wrest religion from the clutches of pious language, and instead, to look
at it as universal human phenomenon. We will isolate sports and civil religion (among other
things) as alternative "religions" of our time.
Bring to class a personal account of a) some Jewish ritual that you personally enjoy, and,
if possible, never miss doing; then, b) do the same thing for a non-Jewish, non-religious ritual. Is
there a difference between them?

2. Raising Self Consciousness

Edward T. Hall, Beyond Culture (Doubleday Anchor paperback), 240 pp.

Total reading: 240 pages.

Hall is a rich source for conceptualizing what we are doing. Read carefully for the
terminology he uses for ritual and religious life. Most people like this book as a snappy
introductory treatment of the subject of ritual. Keep a running list of Hall's technical terms. As
you record them on paper, assign a number to them from 1 to 5; 1 represents your judgement that
they are relatively useless for your purposes; 5 means they intrigue you. Come to class with your
own list of 5's.

3. An Introductory Overview

Tom F. Driver, The Magic of Ritual (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1991), pp.
1-191. Be sure to buy the paperback edition.

Total reading: 191 pp.

In addition to Hall (last session) you now have Driver's very useful introduction to the
field. He provides a particular approach based on the insights of Victor Turner, especially. We
will not read Turner directly here, but we will cite him on occasion. Driver posits a social and
ethical function for ritual that deserves looking at. It is a positive evaluation of the need for ritual,
not from a mere sociological perspective, but from a religious point of view.

4. Freud: Ritual and Neurosis

John Murray Cuddihy, The Ordeal of Civility (Delta paperback), pp. 17-97

Sigmund Freud Totem and Taboo (I recommend the Norton Library Translation, a
readily available paperback running in all, 106 difficult pages. But do not read it
all. See instructions below.)

Frederick Crews, "Myth of the Repressed Memory," New York Review of Books 41:19
(Nov. 17, 1994), pp. 51-60; 41:20 (Dec. 1, 1994), pp. 49-57; and rejoinder, 42:5
(March 23, 1995): 65-66. (On this reading, see below.)

Theodor Reik, "The Re-emerging mother Goddess," in Pagan Rites in Judaism, pp. 66-
79.

Total reading; 186 pp.

I presume you have read Freud somewhere in your education, but you may not have
encountered Cuddihy's controversial interpretation of him, based on Freud's marginal status as
Jew in Christian Europe. We'll spend part of the class discussing marginality as a cultural
category. You may want to finish Cuddihy's book -- it's that good -- and if so, you should
probably jump to the discussion of Marx, or, if you like psychology, try Reich (pp. 104-116). I
don't recommend you try the discussion of Levi-Strauss until we get to him (if we do in fact get to
him this semester) in class.
We will focus on Totem and Taboo, Freud's real legacy to our topic. Don't get bogged
down in the lengthy citation of scholars and their theories with which Freud begins. Freud always
began his discussion by citing the literature. What you want to know is his analysis of ritual; his
likening it to neurosis; and his etiology of its origins. If he is right, we are in trouble, since we are
perpetuating neurosis. But why is he wrong?

Read the first 74 pages (up to part III), without getting bogged down in the citation of
literature and all the details, especially at the beginning!! Skip his lengthy paragraphs where he
just tells you what other people say. Read to get Freud's general ideas, and every time he cites a
neurotic symptom, see if it reminds you of something having to do with ritual or prayer. Then skip
Part III and the first two sections of Part IV. Jump to page 126 (Part IV, Section 3) and read until
you understand Freud's explanation of ritual.
The very existence of an unconscious (as well as consciousness and mind) are issues that
matter to us. Freud posits the unconscious as the ritualizing agent, by claiming its tendency to
repress painful memories. That is the issue which Crews attacks, in what is a very (!) controversial
article! Part 2 is the most important element, especially his treatment of the early and late Freud,
and his challenge to Freud's basic assumptions (p. 56) which you should read carefully and
thoughtfully. Freud, cures you of ritual by treating the unconscious and curing it of repression.
But what if a) there is an unconscious, but b) there is no such thing as repression? Or, perhaps, c)
there is such a thing as repression but it is irrelevant to ritual? Or even, d) there is such a thing as
repression and it is relevant to ritual but only to a sub-class of ritual which we can indeed agree to
call "sick" ritualizing? Then, we have to come up with a new cause and appreciation for "healthy"
ritual -- precisely the purpose of this course.
(Crews attacks the current trend in law suits brought on the basis of recovered memories.
It is not my intention to argue for or against his claim here. I include the article for what it says
about repression and the unconscious. If you get interested in the unconscious per se, look at
Jonathon Miller, "Going Unconscious," New York Review of Books 42:7 (April 20, 1995): 59-65.)

5. The Jungian Response; a Question of Symbols

C.G. Jung Man and his Symbols (1964: Dell paperback edition, 1968, and thereafter in
many editions), pp. 1-94.

Lawrence A. Hoffman, Art of Public Prayer, chapter 2 (pp. 19-37).

Peter E. Fink, "Theoretical Structures for Liturgical Symbols," in Liturgical
Ministry 2 (Fall, 1993): 125-137.

Total reading: 131 pp.

Primarily, we are interested in symbols here. In class, I will summarize the Jungian system for you,
so as not to burden you with hundreds of pages of reading on the general subject of Jungian
thought.
However, Jung himself has written a relatively simple summary of his main ideas,
especially as they relate to symbols. Read, therefore, Jung and then my account. You should
quickly get a sense of how Jung has influenced me, and where I differ with him.

I used to provide a feminist counter to Jung, namely, Carol Gilligan (In a Different Voice).
I have omitted it here to save you time, since this session is on symbols, not on Jung himself. I
may refer to Gilligan in class, however, and if you have yet to encounter Gilligan's classic work,
you should consider getting it and reading it, especially pp. 5-23.
Fink provides you with a counterpoint to my own perspective, I lean on Jung, and
overlook the phenomenological study of symbol. Fink provides this latter perspective, again
emphasizing transformation (Remember Driver?), and summing up major symbol theorists that
Christian liturgists had tended to like. Pay attention especially to Ricoeur.

6. Emil Durkheim, Mircea Eliade, Rudolf Otto: The Sacred and the Profane

Robert N. Bellah, Emile Durkheim on Morality and Society (Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 1973), “Introduction,” ix-lv.

Rudolf Otto, The Idea of the Holy (1923: Reprint. ed., 2nd ed., Oxford and New York:
1950), Chaps. 1-5 [pp. 1-30], 14-17 [pp. 112-142], 26 [pp. 175-178]

Mircea Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1957),
Introduction, Chs. 1-2 (pp. 8-113).

Lawrence A. Hoffman, Beyond the Text (Bloomington: Indiana University Press,
1987), "The Numinous [a critique of Otto as he has been carried in western
worship]," pp. 149-171

Total reading: 224 pp.

Durkheim is the great name associated with the sacred/profane dichotomy, but Otto is the
figure who most influenced western religion by accenting the sacred as a Kantian a priori
category that explains religion as he (and classical Reform Judaism) knew it. Eliade has echoes of
all three prior voices on the subject -- Durkheim, Jung, and Otto. But he has his own story to tell,
from a perspective known generally nowadays as "History of Religions." Among other things, he
accents space and time as sacred commodities. Is space or time sacred in and of itself?
Now look at my own accounts: first, of Otto (critical if you are to understand my thinking
on ritual today) and then of Eliade.

7. Cultural Materialism, Functionalism, and Anthropological Symbolism

Marvin Harris, Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches: the Riddle of Culture (1974: New
York: Vintage paperback 1978), 228 pp.

Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger (1966: London: Routledge and Kegan Paul
paperback, 1978), pp. 1-57.

Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures (New York: Basic Books, 1973),
pp. 3-30, 87-125 (optional), 412-453.

Lawrence A. Hoffman, "Reconstructing Ritual as Identity and Culture," in Paul F.
Bradshaw and Lawrence A. Hoffman, eds., The Making of Jewish and
Christian Worship (Notre Dame and London: University of Notre Dame, 1991),
pp. 22-39.

Total reading: 411 pp.

A more sophisticated presentation of Harris's position is his Cultural Materialism: the
Struggle for a Science of Culture (1979: New York: Vintage paperback, 1980). But the earlier
book will do very nicely for our purposes. It is composed in the popular vein, and quick reading.
Harris reduces cultural phenomena to materialistic terms.
By contrast, we will be emphasizing a point of view according to which cultures (including
religion and ritual) are not reducible that way. Hence I have included Douglas's account of
Kashrut as a foil for Harris's version. This class is not a study in Kashrut per se of course, but the
different perspectives that these two authors provide for Kashrut as a cultural phenomenon
provide the appropriate contrast for us to consider when we arrive at the ritualizing tendency
responsible for worship.
Douglas is not technically a symbolist; she is a modern version of Durkheim's
functionalism. (I will elaborate in class.) However, her treatment of Kashrut is symbolistic, so I
use it here. The prime symbolist, however, is Clifford Geertz, so I have included Geertz's classic
essay in symbolistic interpretation, "Deep Play; Notes on a Balinese Cockfight." It is not easy-
going, but it is Geertz at his best. Preface it with his theoretical model, "Thick Description:
Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture." Both are taken from his collection of essays, The
Interpretation of Culture. I ask you also to read the chapter there on "Religion as a Cultural
System," and my own utilization of symbolism as a system of interpretation in "Reconstructing
Ritual as Identity and Culture," which will transport the general theory into a familiar liturgical
context.

8. Social Construction Theory

Peter Berger, The Sacred Canopy (1967: New York: Doubleday Anchor
paperback, 1969), pp. 29-51.

Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger, pp. 58-72.

Nelson Goodman, Ways of Worldmaking (Indianapolis: Hacket Publishing Co.), pp. 1-22

Total reading: 58 pp.

You have already encountered Douglas. I add one chapter of hers here, because she deals
with the role of ritual in it, and because she seems to specify a particular application of the sort of
thinking you will get with Berger. In many ways, Douglas remains the most challenging theorist
alive today, and you will enjoy her chapter here. But do not get bogged down in her citation of all
the anthropological literature which you have probably not read. Ask yourself why she and Berger
are talking about the same thing. See especially, Berger's brief discussion of ritual on pp. 31 and
40, and his concept "plausibility structure."
On the way out of class, collect my article, "Women's Prayers and Women Praying."

9. Structuralism and Claude Levi-Strauss

If you want to get your own understanding of Levi Strauss, read:

Edmund Leach, Claude Levi-Strauss, Penguin Modern Masters Series, edited by
Frank Kermode (Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin paperback ed.,
1976), 134 pp.

The above is optional, however. I will summarize his approach in class.

You do have to read an example of Levi-Strauss, however, and for that purpose, I have chosen
his classic summary of the way myths function. Read, therefore,

Claude Levi-Strauss, Cultural Anthropology, "The Structural Study of Myth"
(Chapter 11), pp. 206-231.

Do not get bogged down in the examples that follow his analysis of the Oedipus myth;
concentrate instead on how he reads Oedipus, and how, therefore, his structural approach
operates.

In addition, the following three articles are applications of structuralism. We will divide the class
in advance into sub-groups, each of which will read one of them, and report to the class on what
they say about matters relevant to Jewish study.

Sherry B. Ortner, "Is Female to Male as Male is to Culture?" in Michelle Zimbalist
Rosaldo and Louise Lamphere, eds, Women Culture and Society (Stanford CA:
Stanford University Press, 1974),pp. 67 - 87. (If you like this, ask me for the book
of responses it generated.)

Samuel Cooper, "The Laws of Mixture: an Anthropological Study in Halakhah,"
in Harvey E. Goldberg, ed., Judaism Viewed from within and from Without
(Albany: State University of New York, 1987), pp. 55-73.

Lawrence A. Hoffman, ed., The Land of Israel: Jewish Perspectives (Notre Dame,
Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1986) -- Introduction only.

The penultimate article may serve as a basis of a discussion on Jewish spirituality and blessings.
More likely, however, we will move on to my own use of Levi-Strauss's binary structuralism as
well as some of the other insights we have looked at. Please read also, therefore,

Lawrence A. Hoffman, Havdalah in Beyond the Text (Bloomington: Indiana
University Press, 1987), pp. 20-45; and Conclusion, pp. 172-182.

Total reading: approx. 20 pp. per group, plus 70 pages otherwise = 95 pp.

Before next week, read

Geertz's critique of Levi-Strauss in his Interpretation of Cultures, pp. 345-359.

We will turn to it briefly next week. It summarizes many of my own problems with Levi-Strauss.

10. Mary Douglas: Grid and Group

Rather than have you read Douglas herself at the moment, read some parallel material that
illustrates her thesis in American religion.

Wade Clark Roof, A Generation of Seekers (paperback available), 264 pp.

Robert Wuthnow, Sharing the Journey, Introduction and Conclusion (pp. 1-28, 341-
366).

You have already read some Douglas for earlier classes, and you may wish now to read Douglas's
own description of grid/group analysis in her Natural Symbols. But it is not easily grasped if you
have no prior experience with anthropological categories, so I will provide a summary in class.
In class, we will make a list of qualities associated with each type of group (low group/low
grid; low group/high grid; high group/low grid; high group/high grid.) Then, we will take as our
examples 1) the kind of Shul which Tevya of "Fiddler on the Roof" would have attended; a
classical Reform Temple at the turn of the century (like Emanuel in New York, Israel in Boston,
The Temple in Cleveland, Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles); a suburban Temple founded in New
Jersey or Westchester County; and a Chavurah like the Westwood or Library Minyan; Boston's
Chavurat Shalom; Washington's Ferbrengen, or New York's West Side Minyan. You may also
choose any other synagogue to which you belong or in which are interested and familiar.

Total reading (including Geertz on Levi-Strauss): 317 pp.

After class, read:

Lawrence A. Hoffman, "The Jewish Sabbath Faces Modernity," in Tamara
Eskenazi, ed., The Sabbath in Jewish and Christian Tradition (Crossroad, 1991),
for an instance of grid-group application to Shabbat.

11. Music

Start with:

Lawrence A. Hoffman and Janet Walton, Sacred Sound and Social Change (Notre
Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1992), pp. as listed below.

The role of music is perhaps the most hotly debated issue today, and I suspect it will only
heat up as time goes on. But no course on ritual can possibly omit a consideration of the impact
of musical style.
If you know little or nothing about liturgical music in your own tradition, begin with the
chapters on Jewish music (Part 1). These are historical overviews, which may often use technical
language that is beyond you, but generally gives a very good account of how music developed in
Judaism. Follow this up with the chapter on Jewish music for our time (Part 2). Then, to get a
sense of what some composers are doing today, read the relevant chapter to our own situation (by
composer, Ben Steinberg) from Part 3. Read the introduction, conclusion and all of Part 4.
Concentrate especially on the contributions of Sam Adler and Virgil Funk in Part 4. .
Adler takes precisely the position I oppose. Funk describes the situation of music in the Roman
Catholic Church, an interesting parallel, however, to the Jewish case. In addition, you will find
Walton's introduction and my own conclusion of interest.

Now see also:

Lawrence A. Hoffman, The Art of Public Prayer, pp. 243-266.

Gershon Silins, Lawrence A. Hoffman, Ben Steinberg, "The Discussion of Music
in Lawence A. Hoffman's The Art of Public Prayer," CCAR Journal (Summer,
1991): 1-22.

Lawrence A. Hoffman, "Musical Traditions and Tensions in the American Synagogue,"
in David Power, Mary Collins, Mellonee Burnim, eds., Music and the Experience of God:
Concilium 222 (Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, Ltd., 1989): 30-38.

12. Jewish Civil Religion: Federation Judaism

The full statement of American Jewish civil religion is:

Jonathan Woocher, Sacred Survival: the Civil Religion of American Jews (Bloomington:
Indiana University Press, 1986), 201 pp.

But that book is available only in very expensive hard-cover format, and fortunately, Woocher has
written a summary of his book in article format which I will give you to read. In addition, please
read:

Lawrence A. Hoffman, Beyond the Text, pp. 126-144,

Total reading: 36? pp.

In our first class, you were exposed to the concept of civil religion. Jonathan Woocher has
applied civil religion theory to American Jewry. Read his article for insight into the religion most
American Jews actually practice. To what extent have synagogue liturgies "bought into" Jewish
Civil Religion as its official theology?
Pay special attention to the myths of Jewish civil religion, regarding which, see my
treatment in Beyond the Text of "The Sacred Myth Today."
Are there also "synagogue myths," things we believe or teach about the synagogue that
may not be literally true, but which foster appreciation of synagogues as necessary institutions?

13. A Dialogue with Federation

I hope to invite some leaders from Federation to class so that we can engage them in a
dialogue regarding the issues that arose in our reading of Woocher. These are people who belong
also to Reform synagogues, and who have something to say about their perception of synagogue
Judaism and the rituals that take place there.

14. Jewish Civil Religion in Israel

A parallel case to the above, and a way to explain Israeli secularism against the backdrop of its
religious substratum. Readings to be determined.

15. Worship in Common

Again, we turn to the practical. How do you go about organizing worship in common with a
Christian church? What do you do when someone suggests a joint Thanksgiving service, for
instance? There is some theory on this subject, mostly in an article I have written and some
responses by others. Read:

Lawrence A. Hoffman, "Jewish-Christian Services: Babel or Mixed Multitude?" Cross
Currents: Religion and Intellectual Life 1:1 (Spring, 1990): 5-17, 21; and responses by
Mary Collins, James Diamond, Rachel Cowan, Robert Bullock, and Karin Thornton, pp.
5-46.

We should emerge not only with some notion of what we think worship in common should be, but
also of the "agenda" that people other than ourselves perceive this issue to entail.

16. Non-Jews and Synagogue Ritual

As an extension of the topic of interfaith worship, see:

Lawrence A. Hoffman, "Non Jews and Jewish Life Cycle Liturgy," Journal of
Reform Judaism (Summer, 1990): 1-20; and responses by Plaut and Glaser. The
latter can be found in Defining the Role of the Non-Jew in the Synagogue: a
Resource for Congregations (New York: Commission on Reform Jewish Outreach
of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and the Central Conference of
American Rabbis, 1990): 65-82.

In class, we will look at a joint service for Chanukah and Advent, deciding what we like
about it, and how to improve it.

Total reading: 162 pp.

17. Current liturgical thinking: Do we need a new prayer book?

Lawrence A. Hoffman, "Setting the Bounds for Prayer-Book Criticism: Paradigm
and Technique" in Journal of Reform Judaism (Fall, 1985): 39-61.

Lawrence A. Hoffman and Nancy Wiener, "The Liturgical State of the World
Union for Progressive Judaism," European Judaism 24:1 (Spring, 1991): 10-22.
Bradshaw and Hoffman, Changing Face, pp. 159-219.

Lawrence A. Hoffman, "Letter to the Liturgy Committee," 1991

Annie Dillard, "An Expedition to the Pole" in Dillard, Teaching a Stone To Talk (New
York: Harper Perennial, 1983), pp. 35-70.

Total reading: 182 pp.

The first article gives you my view of how prayer books should be judged. Hoffman and Wiener
survey what is happening liturgically in liberal Jewish circles world-wide. The essays in Bradshaw
and Hoffman give you three critiques of liturgy today. Walton's feminist critique is powerful.
Power's theological critique is difficult but worth while, if you can get through it. Signer's poetics
critique raises questions about an aspect of language we spend too little time on. My letter to the
liturgy committee raises questions and possibilities about where we will be liturgically by the year
2000.
Dillard is arguably the best writer around today. Her short essay is a brilliant analysis of
something or other, but what? Read it and think about rituals that do not work.

*
18. Metaphor and Narrative

James W. Fernandez, Persuasions and Performances: The Play of Tropes in Culture
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986), pp. 3-17, 28-43, 187-211.

Stephen S. Pearce, Flash of Insight: Metaphor and Narrative in Therapy (Boston: Allyn
and Bacon, 1996), pp. 1-28.

Total reading: 81 pp.

19. Ritual, Worship and Healing

Larry Dossey, Healing Words: the Power of Prayer and the Practice of Medicine
(New York: HarperSanFranciso, 1993)

Susan Sontag, Illness as Metaphor (1978: New York: Anchor Doubleday, 1988)

Elaine Zecher, ed., CCAR Collection of Healing Services (unpublished resource material)

Total reading: 350 pp.

We bring the course into focus for the purposes of pastoral care, a particularly apt illustration of
the theory presented this far. Dossey's book (his first on the topic is the most widely quoted, but
may not address the real pastoral issues. We will get at what I think those issues ought to be
through a consideration of Sontag's narrative on illness, and with reference to the overall theme of
the course from the theoretical readings earlier on.

20. The Synagogue 2000 Program

Students will be provided with copies of the introductory Prayer Itinerary as well as the second-
year material on spiritualizing the infrastructure. In addition, readings will be extensive. The
following suggest the sort of material that will be discussed.

Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Church (Grand Rapids: Sondervan Publishing Co.,
1995).

Gil Mann, How to Get More Out Of being Jewish Even If... (Minneapolis: Leo and Sons,
1996), pp. 1-14, 57-79.

Donald E. Miller, Reinventing American Protestantism (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1997).

Robert Wuthnow, Acts of Compassion (Princeton: Princeton university Press, 1991).

Robert Wuthnow, The Restructuring of American Religion (Princeton: Princeton
university Press, 1988), pp. 71-99 (“The Decline of Denominationalism”)

Nancy Tatom Ammerman, Congregation and Community (New Brunswick: Rutgers
University Press 1997).

The Willow Creek Community Church: A Harvard Business School Report (1991)

Lawrence A. Hoffman, Sacred Places and the Pilgrimage of Life (Chicago: Liturgy
Training Publications, 1991): 19 pp.

Richard S. Vosko, Designing Future Worship Spaces (Chicago: Liturgy Training
Publications, 1996): 63 pp.

Parker J. Palmer, The Courage to Teach: Exploring the inner Landscape of a Teacher’s
Life (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1998).

Annie Dillard, Living By Fiction (New York: Harper and Rowe, 1982; paperback, 1983).