The Magic of Ritual

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:

. . .
always joyful. To the contrary, it is sometimes, even often, a matter of doing some act in the form of a ritual which feels far more like a difficult or undesirable duty than an act of joy or pleasure. Driver does not argue against the aspect of duty in ritual, but he does argue, and vehemently, against rituals which have had the vitality sucked out of them by institutional ignorance. For example, focusing on the failures of religion to inspire many people today, the author writes that part of this failure has to do with the aridity of ritual: Since the playfulness and freedom of ritual have largely disappeared from churches, the soul of worship often disappears, leaving behind only skeletal bones in the form of an "order." The service is then envisaged not as something musical, danceable, and expressive but rather as the recitation of certain prescribed words (215). In other words, rituals should be, according to Driver, not only interesting, entertaining, and emotionally and spiritually involving for the participants, they should also, whenever possible, be expressive of the joy of humanity. Rituals are not meant to be, as too many believe, only solemn and restrictive activities. Above all, Driver argues that rituals should lea
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Lives Communities, Anonymous AA, Luke Jesus, Alcoholics Anonymous, modern society, Francisco HarperSanFrancisco, magic ritual, Magic Ritual, driver argues, rituals modern society, driver writes, ritual power, rituals driver, importance rituals, argues rituals, alcoholics anonymous, significance driver,
Approximate Word count = 1498
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

More Essays on The Magic of Ritual