Religion & Public Memory

 

 

  • The Public Work of Christmas
    • The Public Work of Christmas
  • Sites of Memory
    • Sites of Memory
    • Workshop
    • Keywords
    • Student Participants
    • Acknowledgments
  • Museums
    • Museums, Religion, and the Work of Reconciliation & Remembrance
  • Making Promises
    • About Making Promises
    • Workshop Schedule
    • Public Keynote Lecture
  • Schloss Conversations
    • Venus in Transit
    • Reformation and Refugees
  • Story Nations
    • About Kiinawin Kawindomowin — Story Nations
  • Organizers
    • Pamela Klassen
    • Monique Scheer

Pamela Klassen

November 1, 2020 by Gregory Fewster

Ceremonial Morality: What a History of Oath-Taking Reveals about Practices of Living in a Good Way

A dominant strand of Christian theology has defined morality as biblically-rooted in Mosaic law, distinguishing it from “ceremonial” and “civic or judicial” laws also found in the Hebrew Bible. This theological view has had significant effects on definitions and policing of religion and ceremony in British colonial jurisdictions including North America and India. In this paper, I conjoin the ceremonial and the moral with a specific focus on the lasting practice of oath-making in colonial secular jurisdictions. Informed by the work of scholars of religion and law such as Robert Yelle and scholars of law and Indigenous studies such as John Borrows, I consider oaths of citizenship and oaths of office as sites at which “secular” politics and “religious” commitments commingle in the performance of ceremonial morality.

Filed Under: Making Promises

Call for Papers: ‘Making Promises’ Workshop

This interdisciplinary workshop – November 5-7, proposal deadline March 15 – invites scholars to ask what it means to make a promise in a society characterized by legal and religious pluralism. In such conditions of multiplicity, how are public promises made meaningful through appeals to varied transcendent powers and diverse traditions of material culture and embodied emotion? Read more about the call here.

Story Nations

Kiinawin Kawindomowin Story Nations is a digital storytelling collaboration based in Toronto, on the territory of the Huron-Wendat and Petun First Nations, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit River. This land has long been … [Read More...]

Sites of Memory

Sites of Memory: Religion, Multiculturalism and the Demands of the Past (September 15-17, 2016) is a comparative workshop focused on how projects of national and religious public memory grapple with the “demands of the past” as they are experienced, … [Read More...]

Recent Posts

  • Dale Turner November 5, 2020
  • Elizabeth Elbourne November 5, 2020
  • Pamela Klassen November 1, 2020
  • Pooyam Tamimi Arab October 30, 2020
  • Sujith Xavier October 30, 2020

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With the support of the Anneliese Maier Research Award from the Humboldt Foundation, Dr. Pamela Klassen of the University of Toronto and Prof. Dr. Monique Scheer, Director of the Ludwig-Uhland-Institut of Historical and Cultural Anthropology, University of Tübingen, are directing a research project on Religion and Public Memory in Multicultural Societies. The project runs from 2015 to […]

How Should We Understand Indigenous Spirituality (in English)? A reflection on the philosophy of listening Indigenous spirituality matters to Indigenous peoples. In this discussion, I am broadly interested in how Indigenous spirituality is used in contemporary Indigenous politics. More specifically, I ask the question: How should we understand Indigenous spirituality in English? My discussion involves […]

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