Praying is the second in a series of books that offer Christians a new way of understanding what it means to live and worship among America's many faiths, and introduces them to the religions that make up the American neighborhood. Praying will explore public, family, and individual worship in Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Baha'i, Zoroastrianism, American indigenous spiritualities, Chinese spiritualities (Confucianism, Taoism), Shinto, and Afro-Caribbean religions. Praying answers and discusses questions such as these: How does your religion understand/measure the passage of time: daily, weekly, annually, over the course of a lifetime? - What is the vocabulary of ritual and practice in your religion? (e.g., worship, prayer, meditation, pilgrimage, feasting and fasting) - Is there a distinction between public and private/individual worship/practice in your religion? - What are this religion's most distinctive practices? What makes them so significant? Praying includes a quick guide to each religion, a glossary, and recommended reading. Lucinda Mosher is the author of two books in the Faith in the Neighborhood series, Belonging and Praying . She holds a Th.D. from General Theological Seminary, and teaches extensively in universities, seminaries, and parishes about world religions and inter-religious relations. She lives in northeast Florida. Praying The Rituals of Faith By LUCINDA MOSHER Church Publishing Incorporated Copyright © 2006 Lucinda Mosher All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-59627-016-9 Contents Preface1. To Whom? For What?2. Daily Devotions3. Coming Together4. Holidays5. ObservanceEndnotesResourcesQuick Information Guide to ReligionsGlossary CHAPTER 1 To Whom? For What? A man pours pilk over a statue. A young woman sits solemnly behind a large book,swooshing over it occasionally with a yak-hair whisk. A man sits before a smallportrait, puts a dot of red powder between his eyes, then marks a U on hisforehead with yellow paste. These are our neighbors, each participating in aritual of his or her faith. Unless we take time to understand why our neighborsof other religions perform their devotional habits, unless we have some accuratesense of what or whom these acts are directed toward, our neighbors' rituals offaith can seem to us as odd or as trivial as the rituals of a professionalbaseball player as he prepares to take his turn at bat. A young girl is watching her mother prepare dinner—perhaps you have heard thisstory. Mom rubs seasoning on the roast, slices off each end, puts it in a pan,and pops it in the oven. "I know why you rub the seasoning on the roast," thechild says, "but why do you slice off the ends?" "That's what my mother alwaysdid," comes the reply. "I don't know why she always did that, but her roastswere delicious, so I do it the way she did. Let's ask her." Grandma replies thatshe was just imitating Great-Grandma, who (it turns out) sliced off the ends sothe roast would fit in the only pan she had. When it comes to rituals of faith, many devout persons in America'smultireligious neighborhood are trying to maintain the practices of those whocame before them, adapting them to the American context if necessary.Undoubtedly, some just imitate Great-Grandma and leave it at that. But manyothers have gone searching for the answer to the question, "Why do we do what wedo?" America's multireligious context itself has encouraged them to become veryclear about what their devotional habits mean, and how to do them well. Theseare the neighbors we will meet in this book. They know quite plainly to whom ortoward what their rituals of faith are directed. They have worked hard to learnhow to explain this to other Americans, and they would like you to understandthe object their devotion. This is why we are beginning our exploration of ourneighbors' rituals of faith with a theology lesson. The Christian religion teaches that God is in essence absolutely One, absolutelyrelational, and definitely personal. That, in a nutshell, is what Christiansmean by saying that God is Triune (One-in-Three; Three-in-One) and that inChrist Jesus we have Emmanu-el: God With Us. But a nutshell is hardly adequatefor holding the mystery of the doctrines of Trinity and Incarnation. Forcenturies, Christians have explained the details to each other—sometimes inscholarly books, sometimes in poetry, sometimes in art. "God-talk" varies,sometimes sharply, from one branch of Christianity to another. It varies withinthe same branch or denomination for a host of reasons. If God-talk is complex and varied among Christians themselves, then it shouldnot surprise us that adherents of other religions in the neighborhood will offercomplex and varied explanations of whatever is ultimate for them. We might alsoexpect that the ability of our neighbors to explain their religion's teachingswill vary according to such factors as depth of training, command of English,which