This paper surfaces the unique epistemology being developed at the ritual turn within comparative theology, in and through embodiment. These methodological queries are raised by the example of Catholic Eucharist and Sufi dhikr, demonstrating how learning ritually is structurally different than textually based learning.
Conceptions of God held by comparative theologians are shaped by the sources used. In addition to Moyaert’s foundational work, Mara Brecht offers somaesthetics and embodied reception of revelation to continue the development of the ritual turn.[i] An expansion of comparative theology to ritual, liturgy, embodiment, and beyond requires an interdisciplinary approach.
Previously unexamined questions reveal new aspects of the divine: How does God reveal Godself in and through bodies, shaped by ritual and liturgical practices? How is the comparative theologian’s epistemological perspective shifted through symbiosis of text and ritual?
[i] Brecht, Mara. “Embodied Transactions,” The Enigma of Divine Revelation, eds. Jean-Luc Marion, C. Jacobs-Vandegeer, Springer (Switzerland) 2020. 151-175.