Repeated prayers: saying the rosary in contemporary Syria
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Repeated prayers: saying the rosary in contemporary Syria. / Bandak, Andreas.
In: Religion, Vol. 47, No. 1, 2017, p. 92-110.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Repeated prayers: saying the rosary in contemporary Syria
AU - Bandak, Andreas
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - Mauss' seminal doctoral thesis, On Prayer [1909], captured the social character of prayer, but he sidelined the rosary as a merely mechanical prayer of repetition. This article also finds repetition at play in the rosary, as it is performed in the shrine of Our Lady of Soufanieh, Damascus, in pre-2011 Syria. However, it argues that repetition need not be conceptualised as dulling and inhibiting for the devotee. Rather, repetition can be seen like a heartbeat: something alive and pulsating. The repetition of the prayers among the followers is seen as unforced, a voluntary response to a grace already bestowed upon them by the Virgin Mary and Christ. Prayers are a response to this grace and, in this sense, repetition is to be understood as re-petition. This re-petition is seen as modelling the individual in the image of the Virgin Mary and, by this, exemplifying the saintly character of the devout.
AB - Mauss' seminal doctoral thesis, On Prayer [1909], captured the social character of prayer, but he sidelined the rosary as a merely mechanical prayer of repetition. This article also finds repetition at play in the rosary, as it is performed in the shrine of Our Lady of Soufanieh, Damascus, in pre-2011 Syria. However, it argues that repetition need not be conceptualised as dulling and inhibiting for the devotee. Rather, repetition can be seen like a heartbeat: something alive and pulsating. The repetition of the prayers among the followers is seen as unforced, a voluntary response to a grace already bestowed upon them by the Virgin Mary and Christ. Prayers are a response to this grace and, in this sense, repetition is to be understood as re-petition. This re-petition is seen as modelling the individual in the image of the Virgin Mary and, by this, exemplifying the saintly character of the devout.
M3 - Journal article
VL - 47
SP - 92
EP - 110
JO - Religion
JF - Religion
SN - 0048-721X
IS - 1
ER -
ID: 169409647