Abstract:
The ritualizing of life passages from the perspective of the liturgical practices of the Church is
the subject of this dissertation. Rites of passage are present in every culture. They mark
identical transitions in human life and help people and groups to go through important
changes in the bio-psycho-social cycle and to cope with the tensions caused by the passages.
The rites of passage work as a seam between the different phases of life. What are the relevant
passages in today s life and how the churches deal or could deal with them are leading
questions in the investigation of the subject.
Having as principal reference the theorist Arnold van Gennep, the first chapter investigates
the anthropological fundaments of the rites of passage. This author studies in exhaustion the
rituals that come with life passages as pregnancy and birth giving, birth and childhood,
initiation or entrance in adult life, marriage and death, and defines an universal principle that
helps to understand the individual and collective passages. This chapter also inquires about
traditional rituals of passage still present in modern society and reflects about the changes in
the modern and post-modern society and the consequences of those changes to the rituals of
passage.
The second chapter studies the passages and the ritualizing of life passages in our days. The
method of qualitative social research was used for this study, applying an individual interview
to ten people chosen by the researcher. The results of this research accentuate the human need
for ritualizing life passages. At the end of the second chapter are presented the challenges that
the ritualizing of life passages brings to Christian liturgy today.
The third chapter studies the ritualizing of passages in the Church. In the first section the
subject is examined from the current liturgical practice of the rituals of passage, having as
reference the example of the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil
(IECLB). In the second section, the theme is investigated from the liturgical practices selected
from the origins of the Christian Church and the ritual practices that surrounded them. In this
chapter s conclusion are collected consequences for the ritualizing of life passages in the
current liturgical practice.
Having as a starting point the methods of liturgical inculturation developed by liturgist Anscar
Chupungco, the fourth chapter proposes a method for the ritualizing of life passages in the
Church in modern times and applies this method to some chosen passages. It is a method that
can be used to any passage, in any circumstance.
The ritualizing of life passages brings many challenges to the Church in modern times. There
are many life passages today that need rituals. By ritualizing life passages, the Church
responds to a fundamental human need: it meets the most urgent needs in life and answers
disquieting human questions.
