Religious Practices: Is Our Faith just Cultural?

by Dr Raymond Perrier · April 14, 2013

Of course, said the smooth-tongued psychologist from the capital, it’s not really religion, it’s culture. Thus, the deeply-felt practices of millions are dismissed by those who cannot understand how the absurdity of medieval religion has survived into a modern age.

Holy Week penitents in a square in Seville, Spain. (Photo: Raymond Perrier)

I heard this comment while watching Holy Week processions in Seville in Spain. The experience is astonishing. Tens of thousands of local people, many dressed in the pointy hats we now associate, unfortunately, with the Ku Klux Klan, walking often barefoot for many hours and following elaborate chariots with scenes from the Passion.

The chariots themselves, weighing many tonnes, are carried on the backs of invisible men, the donkeys that carry the Saviour or the Simons of Cyrene who shares his cross.

Assume the Best Motivation

But I have heard the same comment made in South Africa: of the delightful Fatima procession in Malvern, Johannesburg, or the solemn all-night vigils in Zululand, or the anonymous multitudes who arrive in our churches on Good Friday for their once-a-year visit.

Just culture, not religion. The implication is that this should not be taken seriously; that these people do not really believe; that they are not thinking about what they do; that they are not sincere.

Of course, I have no idea if they are or are not sincere, or what motivates the countless young people dressed in the ancient robes of medieval penitents on the streets of Seville. How can we know?

Queen Elizabeth I of England, when challenged to judge if her subjects were real Protestants or hidden Catholics, focused on their behaviour, not their motivations, choosing not to look into men’s hearts. Similarly, St Ignatius of Loyola proposed a very good rule to apply: if in doubt, assume the best interpretation.

Distinctions Between Religion and Culture

But I want to go further than that. It is not enough to reluctantly assume that those who are culturally devout are also religiously committed. I want to question the underlying premise. My fear is that this distinction is a hangover of the Reformation and the Enlightenment, embellished with some contemporary Freudian psychology.

Religion, it is presumed, is a private thing all about beliefs and attitudes and (the cardinal virtue of the modern age) sincerity. Culture (with a sneering glance down the nose) is un-thinking, inherited and not truly reflective of who people genuinely are.

Built into this paradigm is the equally false distinction between the individual (who could choose to be religious, though often chooses not to) and the community (which has no choice about its culture).

Religion and Culture One and the Same?

To see how poorly this distinction serves Christianity, let’s try applying it to other religions. Is the Jewish person religious when he refuses pork but cultural when he eats smoked fish? Is the Muslim who keeps Ramadan even if he drinks the occasional whisky inconsistent in his religion or in his culture?

My Indian neighbour commented on how much the Seville processions were like the Melas of Hinduism but she would have been baffled if I had asked if that was a religious or a cultural similarity.

Within the Christian world we as Catholics have much to lose from a false separation of religion and culture. But in predominately secular or Protestant environments we are tempted to follow that line.

When I was in Britain I discovered that while only 5% of teenagers went to church on a Sunday, 30% of them gave up something for Lent. Do we moan about their loss of religion or instead applaud this enduring example of culture and religion being intertwined?

Four Tasks for the Community

Faced with the potential richness of our heritage, I would suggest we have four tasks as a community.

1. To nurture and enrich the religious/cultural practices that we do have and make sure that we invest time and energy in them so they do not ossify. Why don’t we spend most of the 40 days of Lent preparing our Triduum liturgies as a parish community?

2. To deepen and share our understanding of them (especially with our young people). This is not to distinguish between culture and religion but rather to reinforce the link.

I am constantly saddened by the number of priests who assume that the Triduum services speak for themselves and thus leave people either baffled or untouched not genuflecting as you leave the church on Good Friday is hugely important; but the practice has evaporated because people do not understand it.

3. To appropriate new cultural forms that can further enrich and be enriched by our faith the World Youth Days or Taize services are an excellent example of this but where are the new South African initiatives?

4. Not to be afraid to challenge and change practices since culture is not fixed but alive.

Washing Feet

The archbishop of Seville washed the feet of 12 (male) seminarians; Pope Francis washed the feet of boys and girls, Christian and Muslim, all of them juvenile offenders.

Which for you was the better sign of the ability of our religion to insert itself in the culture and challenge it from within?

To repeat those wonderful words of Bl John XXIII: let’s open up the windows of our churches so that we can see out and so others can see in and not worry if a few flies come in at the same time!