Tom F. Driver, in The Magic of Ritual: Our Need for Liberating Rites that Transform Our Lives & Our Communities, presents a theological and cultural study of the roles and significance of rituals in society. The author argues that rituals are not merely decorative additions to social relationships and identity, but rather are crucial for life to have any meaning or sense at all. He further argues that modern society is in danger of completely losing its bearings because it has discounted the importance of such rituals. Driver is as much as saying that as a nation's rituals go, so goes the entire nation:
To lose ritual is to lose the way. It is a condition not only painful and pathetic but also dangerous. Some people it destroys. As for the whole society, sooner or later it will find rituals again, but they may be of an oppressive rather than a liberating kind. Rituals have much to do with our fate (4).
Driver sets a mighty task for himself. Not only does he seek to examine rituals and their significance on numerous levels of society, he seeks to inspire his readers to become active in transforming the very structure of cultural rituals. However, he certainly achieves his ambitions in both respects, as far as this reader is concerned. Any reader who is not aware of the importance of rituals in modern society will come away from this book thoroughly convinced and enlightened with respect to that significance.
Driver writes specifically of the aims of his book:
to reflect upon the deep human longing for ritual; to interpret it in the light of our physical, social, political, sexual, moral, aesthetic, and religious existence; and to urge a reform of our ritual life, especially in religion, so that our longing for ritual and our longing for freedom may come together. It is a tragedy they were ever split. With enough knowledge and discipline, we can do something about it (4).
Not only is Driver's book an education for the rea...