Embodied Cognition in Ecclesial Practices

Summary

This chapter argues that embodied religious practices and material culture—such as bodily postures, ritual objects, pilgrimage, and multisensory stimuli—serve as cognitive scaffolding that supports memory, emotion, attention, judgment, and conceptualization. Drawing on empirical findings from embodied cognition research and applying them to Christian Eucharistic practices and other examples, the author contends that these mechanisms are not limited to elaborate liturgies but also appear in non-liturgical traditions, as shown by ethnographic accounts. The chapter cautions that the cited studies have methodological issues including replication problems, small or unrepresentative samples, and limited ecological validity.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Abstract Taking its cue from replacement and constitution hypotheses (Chapter 5), this chapter highlights the cognitive significance of embodied religious practices and religious material culture. It applies dozens of specific empirical findings from embodied cognition research to Christian Eucharistic practices, among other examples. Studies should be treated with caution given methodological issues identified in experimental psychology, including replication, small or unrepresentative samples, and ecological validity. Nevertheless, these findings illuminate how bodily postures and movements, ritual objects, pilgrimage routes, visual culture, multisensory stimuli, and social interactions serve as cognitive scaffolding by supporting numerous aspects of cognition including memory, emotion, attention, judgement, and conceptualisation. Although such mechanisms are most readily identified with elaborate liturgical practices, I draw upon ethnographic accounts to argue that they are also relevant to ‘non-liturgical’ traditions.