Bricolage

I've run into this word--bricolage--a couple of times in the last few weeks: first in Bron Taylor's "Dark Green Religion," which I read for the Contemporary Paganism class, and then again in a "Sightings" post from the Martin Marty Center at the University of Chicago Divinity School.


Taylor uses the term to describe what he sees as some common themes shared by a number of contemporary earth-centered groups, drawn from various traditions and ideologies.  In his words: "In a bricolage these various ideas and practices are fused together, like a bricklayer or mason piecing together a wall or building with mortar or stone."


In the Sightings post, contributor Benjamin E. Zeller writes about "The Bricolage Religion of LOST and American Religious Culture."  He points out that the television series LOST (which I admit I have not seen) put together various elements from a number of religious traditions to create a unique "mythos" on the island.  Zeller goes on to note that such bricolage is not at all new in American culture.  He describes this tendency as " a continuing proclivity for combinativeness in American religious culture."

It occurs to me that we UUs are bricoleurs par excellence.  We reuse and recycle various elements of different religious traditions to come up with something new and personally relevant.  And I don't think there's any need to apologize or feel bad about that.  If there ever was any such thing as a "pure" religion, untainted by other influences, it has long since turned into something else.


I believe that any contemporary religious movement needs to recognize that there is a multiplicity of religious and ideological notions floating about in the cultural ether and that people will tend to combine those elements that best correspond with their interests and experiences. We do need to be respectful when we engage with other religious traditions, but engagement itself is the key, I think.


Vive le bricolage!


(So, somewhere in there, I hope, is a paper topic.  Hmm . . .)