Innovating from Traditions: The Emergence of a Ritual Field of Collective Commemoration in the Netherlands

ABSTRACT

This article demonstrates that tradition has a more profound effect on religion in liquid modernity than might be expected. The recent emergence in the Netherlands of a new ritual field aimed at collective commemoration of the dead is used as an example to investigate the dynamic relationship between religious tradition and creative ritualising. The comparison between Catholic, Protestant, and non‐ecclesial ritualising shows how Catholic ritual traditions associated with All Souls’ Day, among other traditions, serve as loose templates for ritual innovation in all three of these settings. Finally, on the basis of these findings, it is argued that ‘innovating from traditions’ presents a more adequate approach to future research into the roles traditions play in liquid modernity than Eric Hobsbawm’s ‘invention of tradition’.

Acknowledgements

Firstly, I would like to thank my PhD supervisor, Professor G. A. F. Hellemans as well as the members of the Noster New Spirituality Network Group and the anonymous reviewers of the Journal of Contemporary Religion for their constructive comments regarding earlier versions of this article. Secondly, I want to express my gratitude to the many individuals and organisations who helped me acquire information for my database.

Notes

1. For the sake of clarity, ‘tradition’ is used here to denote the second‐order generic concept, whereas ‘a tradition’ (and the plural ‘traditions’) refers to one of the particular cultural phenomena that are commonly described with, or studied through, this concept.

2. For a more detailed discussion of the commemoration and memorialisation of the Dutch war dead after the Second World War, see Rob van Ginkel.

3. ‘Collective’ in this sense serves as a double referent, pointing both to those commemorating and to those being commemorated. In this sense, collective commemorations are distinct, not only from private commemorations but also from strictly categorical commemorations aimed at commemorating only a selective sub‐group of the deceased.

4. For the sake of convenience, ‘Catholic’ and ‘Roman Catholic’ will be used interchangeably throughout the text to refer to the latter. Collective commemorative practices of non‐Roman Catholics have not been taken into account in the analysis presented here.

5. For the discussion of commemoration in a Dutch Protestant setting, a decision was made to look only at congregations that are part of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands, the result of a merger in 2004 between the major Dutch Protestant denominations (both Calvinist and Lutheran).

6. As discussed under the heading “The Emergence of a Ritual Field”, the Netherlands has no history of church involvement in the commemoration of the war dead as is more common elsewhere.

7. The information presented here stems from an interview with Lia van Berkel, one of the initiators of this project and current board member of the Franciscan Movement.

8. As in the case of the Catholic and Protestant commemorations, a decision was made to limit the analysis by focusing only on the commemorations that were collective in the double sense, excluding categorical commemorations (see endnote 3).

9. Personal communication from Marinus van den Berg, organiser of these meetings.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

William Arfman

William Arfman is a PhD candidate in the field of religious studies at the Tilburg School of Catholic Theology at Tilburg University in the Netherlands. His main research interests are ritual studies, material culture studies, death studies, and the role of traditions in contemporary society.