Inter-rituality as modern ritualization in a religiously pluralistic context: Ancestral rite in Taiwan as a test case

The purpose of this article is to explore a marginal social tension in Taiwan: Protestant Christians’ rejection of ancestral rites. Though marginal, the social tension merits a careful investigation for its latent impact on the social identity acknowledged by Protestant Christians. Given that ancestral rites mediate between religion (offering sacrifices, 祭 ji ) and morality (Confucian rituality, 禮 li ) 1 in Taiwan, why do Protestant Christians reject the rite and thus disengage themselves from the normative practice of the people? While causing family feud with such a rejection attitude in their non-Christian family, can they improve their family relations without contravening their Christian faith? Can they accommodate the rite in a Christian manner? This article examines the tension in a conceptual framework of inter-rituality, arguing that the changing dynamics of inter-rituality may re-shape the conventional Christian understanding of the rite and reappropriate the rite for Christian purpose without contravening Christian faith.