Re: the orthopraxy thing

From: Andrew Larsen <aelarsen_at_facstaff.wisc.edu>
Date: Fri, 09 Jun 2000 12:04:49 -0500

> From: Alex Ferguson <abf_at_cs.ucc.ie>
> Subject: Re: The orthopraxy thing
>
> Andrew Larsen:
>

>>>> Hypocrisy implies an intent to deceive.  A worshipper would only be
>>>> hypocritical if he claimed that he loved the god when he didn't (since the
>>>> issue of existence isn't really relevant in Glorantha).
>>> 
>>> Tell that to the Brithini.
>> 
>> Yes, but the Brithini are much closer to an orthodoxy system, having
>> been modelled essentially on the medieval Catholic church.

>
> I can only assume you're thinking of the Rokari, here, or the liturgical,
> deist West in general. The Brithini are immortal, atheistic cyphers,
> who have no (known, at least) credo, and whose 'philosophy of life'
> one might regard as being 'orthopractic', in the extreme...

    A complete brain fart. For some reason, I was thinking Malkioni, not Brithini. Not the same thing by a long stretch.

>> The whole reason that I brought up this point in the first place was to
>> demonstrate that there is a completely different way to think about Orlanthi
>> religion than by focusing on the question of belief, which is certainly far
>> less important than practice.

>
> For a sufficiently broad definition of 'practice', and a sufficiently
> narrow one of 'belief', at least. Certainly the Orlanthi have nothing
> one would really characterise as a 'dogma', 'doctrine', or 'credo'.
> Not as distinct from social norms. custom, and law, at least.
> However, you seem to be taking the large area in between the two, to do
> with non-ritual behaviour, morals, ideals, etc, etc, and either
> ignoring it, or redesignating it as 'orthopraxis', which seems to
> me to at least be counter-intuitive.

    It's a question of what's the most important thing in a religion--what you think or what you do. For an orthodox religion, the key is proper belief. There may well be important rituals to observe, but the over-riding issue is what you think. For an orthopraxis religion, the key is proper ritual. There may well be important ideas, such as virtues, but the over-riding issue is what you do.

Andrew E. Larsen

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End of The Glorantha Digest V7 #701

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