Proximations of Public Religion: Worship, Spiritual Warfare, and the Ritualization of Christian Dance

Abstract

This essay is about a group of neo-Pentecostal evangelists who decided to represent their church in the New York Dance Parade, which they regarded as an opportunity to promote worship as the true purpose of art and engage in spiritual warfare. Their participation was predicated on a distinction between "performance" and "ministry," privileging the latter. I argue that upholding this distinction in the immersive context of a secular festival required a process of intensive ritualization, involving physical and spiritual preparations and symbolic boundary maintenance. I further argue that anthropological perspectives on such instances of public religion should seek to account for how ritual forms produce and are shaped by the effects of what I call proximation, a condition of "closeness" between categories of activity otherwise regarded as separate and autonomous (e.g., religion and the arts). The concept is a means to explore how religious ministries are influenced by ostensibly external factors and the need to manage them, and by the various opportunities, tensions, and moral associations that arise when ritual strategies evoke comparisons with secular genres and domains. The proximations of religion highlight the ethnographic significance of ideal-typical categories and spheres, including their potential to intersect, which is a byproduct of how they have been differentiated. [Christianity, ritual, performance, evangelicalism, secularism] RESUMEN Este ensayo es acerca de un grupo de evangelistas neopentecostales que decidieron representar su iglesia en el Desfile de Danza de Nueva York, el cual vieron como una oportunidad para promover la alabanza como el verdadero propósito del arte e involucrarse en la guerra espiritual. Su participación fue predicada sobre la distinción entre "representación" y "ministerio", privilegiando elúltimo. Argumento que sosteniendo esta distinción en el contexto de inmersión en un festival secular requirió un proceso de ritualización intensivo, involucrando preparaciones físicas y espirituales y mantenimiento de un límite simbólico. Argumento además que las perspectivas antropológicas en tales casos de religión pública deben buscar explicar cómo las formas rituales producen y son moldeadas por los efectos de lo que yo llamo proximación, una condición de "proximidad" entre categorías de actividad de otra manera consideradas como separadas y autónomas (p.ej., la religión y las artes). El concepto es un medio para explorar cómo los ministerios religiosos son influenciados por factores ostensiblemente externos y la necesidad de manejarlos, y por las diversas oportunidades, tensiones, y asociaciones morales que surgen cuando las estrategias rituales evocan comparaciones con géneros y dominios seculares. Las condiciones de "proximidad" de la religión destacan el significado etnográfico de las categorías y esferas típicas-ideales, incluyendo su potencial de intersectar, lo cual es un subproducto de cómo se han diferenciado. [Cristiandad, ritual, representación, evangelicalismo, secularis...

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