Abstract
This paper offers a comparative study of Shiʿi devotional rituals of mourning for Imam Ḥusayn and Christian Passion Plays centered on the suffering of Jesus. While these traditions developed independently—most likely coincidentally—in the medieval period, they share an affective piety that places devotion to a revered figure at the center of ritual life. In both cases, dramatic performance becomes a vehicle for cultivating tears, pity, and communal empathy. Yet the theological orientations diverge. For Shiʿism, rituals of lamentation are fundamentally about mourning and remembering, binding minority communities together through collective grief and anticipating the eschatological return of the Mahdi. In Christianity, Passion Plays have historically foregrounded the redemptive dimension of suffering, dramatizing salvation through Christ’s sacrifice. By tracing these distinct trajectories—Shiʿi ritual expanding especially in the early modern period, and Christian Passion Plays sustaining a theology of redemption—the paper highlights how two devotional traditions can embody shared histories of performance and affect while pursuing different theological and communal ends. Extending this comparative frame, the paper also considers how such grassroots spiritual cultures, not unlike those found in Indigenous religions, arose through embodied practices yet became politicized in different historical moments—not as the outgrowth of an inherent political logic, but as a response to economic and political crises that communities faced.
Presenters
Babak RahimiDirector of the Program for the Study of Religion, University of California, San Diego, California, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Religious Community and Socialization
KEYWORDS
Affective piety, Ritual, Mourning, Community
