drama, religious

Religion has included drama or theatrical performances in a number of ways. Religions use drama in RITUALS and as acts of worship. Religions have also infl uenced dramas that are performed primarily for entertainment. Not to be overlooked is the opposition that some religious people have to drama. DRAMA AS RITUAL AND WORSHIP Drama is originally a Greek word that means an act or a deed, particularly deeds acted out on a stage. Some scholars suppose that people have been acting out stories of one sort or another for as long as there have been people. For example, a cave in France has footprints that some claim go back to early hunters. The footprints make a circle, and some scholars suggest that the hunters made them as they were acting out hunting scenes as part of their rituals. It is quite common for religions to use drama as a form of worship. One way to do so is to act out stories about gods and other supernatural beings. A good example is the Ramlila celebration in HINDUISM, which takes place in the fall. Ramlila acts out the story of RAMA, an avatar of VISHNU, as told in the RAMAYANA. Some perform just the bare outline of the story; others perform it in great detail. The climax comes with the fi nal battle, when Rama fi nally defeats the demon Ravana. It is common to build effi gies of Ravana and other demons that are several times the size of a human being. These effi gies are stuffed with fi reworks and set alight when Rama shoots a lighted arrow into them. Other famous dramatizations of religious stories include the dance drama and puppet theater of Indonesia and depictions of the passion of JESUS among native peoples of Latin America as well as at places like Oberammergau, Germany, and Eureka Springs, Arkansas. To the extent that acts of ritual or worship involve performance, they inevitably have a dramatic side. For example, some people speak of the Mass in ROMAN CATHOLICISM as a sacred drama. More clearly theatrical were dramas that some scholars believe characterized worship in the ancient Near East, for example, ancient Babylonia. Taking the part of a god, the king reenacted various stories. One concerned the humiliation of the god, during which the king was whipped and beaten. Another told of the sacred marriage between a god and goddess. On some views these acts were clearly linked to the forces of the cosmos, such as the growth and decay of plants. The king's reenactments of them were rituals that aimed to ensure the fl ourishing of his territory. Traditional healers known as shamans (see SHAMANISM) have also performed a kind of ritual drama. Many shamans heal by traveling to the realm of the spirits, because spirits are thought to make people sick. In that realm they discover the cause of a patient's illness and, in some traditions, battle and defeat the evil spirits. Shamans may use dance, song, and drama as they act out their encounters with beings in the spirit realm, including their struggles with and victory over the illness-causing spirits. Another form of religious drama takes place when a spirit overcomes a person, as happens when a spirit "rides" a person in the Caribbean religion known as VOODOO. This, too, is a kind of religious drama, but a spontaneous one which members of the religion take to be not a performance but the very actions of the spirit itself. The presence of supernatural beings may bring about another kind of religious drama. People who believe that GOD is actually present in a temple may perform dramas to please her or him. This was the function of special women in Hindu temples known as devadasis, "servants of god." Their dancing acted out stories at the same time that it entertained the divinity present. Religious dramas are not restricted to adult actors. In many religions children, too, perform religious dramas in the context of ritual and worship. In JUDAISM children act out the events surrounding ESTHER's saving of her people at PURIM. Many Christian children in North America dramatize the story of Jesus' birth around the time of CHRISTMAS. Children in schools in India may also put on plays about the life of Rama during Ramlila. These dramas provide ways for children to learn religious stories by participating in them rather than simply listening to them. Actors identify with the characters, and as a result the stories begin to defi ne who they are. RELIGION INFLUENCES DRAMA The line between drama performed as ritual and drama performed as entertainment is often diffi cult to draw. For example, are Purim plays and plays about the birth of Jesus performed for religious purposes, for entertainment, or both? It has been suggested that drama for entertainment began as ritual. That statement may be an exaggeration. Nevertheless, religions have played important roles in the development of kinds of drama that are usually associated with entertainment. It is customary to locate the beginning of Western drama with Greek tragedy and comedy. Some of the religious infl uences on these plays are hard to miss. Tragedies use religious stories, such as the story of Oedipus, to explore the human situation. These tragedies were performed as part of a festival in Athens known as the Greater Dionysia, in celebration of Dionysos. During the Middle Ages, too, drama had a strong religious character. Guilds performed mystery plays to dramatize stories from the Bible. Morality plays, such as Everyman, talked about the human condition. From such roots, European drama of the Renaissance and later periods grew. Religious infl uence on theater is hardly limited to Europe. In Japan, a form of drama known as Noh combines elements of SHINTO and BUDDHISM. Actors sometimes perform Noh plays for religious purposes, but they also perform them today to entertain audiences. During the plays actors represent gods, spirits of the dead, and demons. These beings come on stage to relate their stories to the audience. In the 20th and early 21st centuries some leading theater directors have paid close attention to the religious and ritual dimensions of drama. Important leaders of this movement include the British director Peter Brook (b. 1925), the American director Richard Schechner (b. 1934), and the African director Wole Soyinka (b. 1934). RELIGION OPPOSED TO DRAMA Not everyone has approved of drama, religious or secular. Perhaps the most famous person who opposed it was the Greek philosopher Plato (c. 427–c. 347 B.C.E.). He accused dramatists and poets of lying about the gods. When he envisioned his ideal state, he excluded drama and poetry from it. Others have opposed drama, too. Many Muslim thinkers have opposed drama, just as they have opposed two-dimensional representations of human beings and animals. Nevertheless, there are dramatic traditions within ISLAM; for example, more Muslims live in Indonesia, with its traditions of dance drama and puppet theater, than in any other country in the world. Despite very strong traditions of drama within Hinduism, even in Hindu worship, the Laws of MANU did not look favorably upon drama. In Buddhism, too, the ten precepts followed by MONKS AND NUNS, novices, and devout laypeople forbid attendance at worldly amusements such as the theater. Such amusements encourage attachment to sensory pleasure and, through the presentation of fi ctions, distract the mind from waking up to reality. In North America, too, some religious people have opposed drama. One such group to do so were the Puritans (see PURITANISM). Today churches in some traditions of PROTESTANTISM, such as the HOLINESS MOVEMENT, either reject theatrical entertainment altogether or fi nd it highly suspicious as a source of immorality and vice. It might be suggested that religious people who oppose drama recognize the immense power of performance and theater. They simply view that power as evil, just as religious people who use drama see in it as a potential source of great benefit.