Last year’s prayer service for those who had donated their bodies to the anatomy department was really quite tasteful. I’m always impressed when a quasi-liturgical function with little foundation in tradition is carried off well. Had my grandfather’s name been one of those on the list, I would have thought him well-treated. But one of the speakers left me with a whole new set of questions about “multi-faith” prayer.
A little background: with one or two possible exceptions, all eighty or so donors had very western names. I would be mildly surprised to find anyone on the list not falling into the religious categories “Christian” and “N/A”. And yet this speaker found it necessary to mention as many sects as she could think of, from Islam to Buddhism with stops at Catholicism and something like new-age. It was manifestly not for the benefit of the donors or their families, or even herself. So what was the point? I’ve come up with a couple of hypotheses:
1. She’s used to talking to more mixed audiences. This theory’s boring, so on to the next one.
2. She feels that a service for the dead has to involve prayer. She also feels that in an academic gathering, there is no room for any mention of God. So the best choice is to have prayer, but make it so pluralist that no one suspects you of taking it seriously. Some will think you’re being profound, some will roll their eyes, but anything’s better than making claims of truth you might have to defend later.
This hypothesis feels a bit superficial too, but I can’t come up with a better one. Takers?