Do religions have borders? Geography, porosity, and the question of appropriation (John Thatamanil)

This podcast argues that although it is virtually impossible to
demarcate clear descriptive boundaries between religious
traditions—religious traditions are too porous, fluid, and
relationally constituted for such stark lines to
exist—nonetheless, persons from within traditions often find that
they must draw normative boundary lines. Here, John
Thatamanil considers one particular case, namely recent talk
about the risks of appropriation. If there really is something
ethically problematic when communities within one tradition take
practices from another—this podcast explores Christian
appropriation of Passover practice during Holy Week—then, clearly
that is because traditions recognize that some rituals properly
belong to one tradition and not another. One is not free to do as
they please with their practices. Thatamanil argues that despite
the fact that it may prove descriptively difficult to demarcate
the lines between traditions, persons from religious communities
may and often do need to come together to build and maintain
boundaries between each other, even if those boundaries too will
need routine renegotiation and maintenance.


This episode is a cooperation between TheoPodacst and the
Catholic Academy in Berlin.
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