Embodied Cognition in Ecclesial Practices

Embodied religious practices and material culture—such as bodily postures, ritual objects, pilgrimage, and sensory stimuli—serve as cognitive scaffolding that supports memory, emotion, attention, judgment, and conceptualization. Drawing on empirical findings from embodied cognition research, the chapter applies these insights to Christian Eucharistic practices and other examples. While caution is warranted due to methodological issues in experimental psychology, including replication problems and small or unrepresentative samples, the evidence suggests these mechanisms are not limited to elaborate liturgical traditions; ethnographic accounts indicate they also operate in non-liturgical settings.

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.