Die „rites de passage“ nach Arnold van Gennep. Ritualanalyse und theologische Legitimationsstrategien

Leonhard Clemens

Zusammenfassung

In 1909, Arnold van Gennep published a theoretical study about a type of rituals that he called rites depassage. He observed that such rituals were performed all over the world and consisted of three consecutivestages - rites of separation, the liminal phase of transformation, and rites of aggregation.These rituals transform the social status of individuals. Van Gennep's basic intuition is of course valid.Yet, when he applied his own theory to actual examples, inconsistencies abound especially in his analysesof Christian rituals such as baptism. While one must not disdain a pioneer like van Gennep whomight have overstated the force of his own thesis, it is stunning that contemporary theologians simplytake his theory for granted and apply it ubiquitously (as van Gennep did). Furthermore, it may be observedthat the universality of the thesis is used in quite crude cases of natural fallacies. Thus, certainmodern texts insinuate that certain rituals must be performed because they are rites de passage, andbecause rites de passage are part and parcel of human nature. The paper presents examples thatshow how an admittedly sweeping anthropological thesis becomes a truism that supports theologicalvalue judgments about modern rituals and even life-styles. It argues that these value judgements areinadmissible and that Christian rituals must be studied with more elaborate and refined methods thanvan Gennep's observations about rites de passage.