From the fact that I enjoyed the food I should deduce that I am gradually becoming Scottish (Ich!).
After the dinner we had a Quiz, quite unusual activity in this Country, I have been told.
Now, it has been a while that I have been thinking about the different approach of Italian and British people to religion, and the fact that among the question there was not ANY religios question on ANY religion made me think about it even more.
Not that I am that expert on the topic, per carita'.
Italians become detached from their religious belief mainly because of anticlericalism. Political (left or right) anticlericalism. It seems to me that British people, nowadays, tend to be detached from the very idea that the religious phenomenon has some meaning and usefulness (no doubt many consider it a compulsive obsessive behaviour). Certainly somebody uses it as a pretext for racial hatred, but for the majority of people the sky is just another Window.
Some time ago I read this book by Felicitas Goodman. The approach that she has on the subject is extremely unusual (I would say shocking) for people with a Western backgroud: in her classification she does not consider at all theology and focuses mainly on the environmental factors and physiological aspects of the religious phenomenon in its generality. The book tells how different religions (and yes, it speaks about Catholicism as well) have achieved techniques to introduce the faihful to alternate realities (without the use of drugs, of course, and in a socially acceptable fashion).
As Italian, born in the south, I see in the British society a widespread tendency in merging irrational, unreasonable, and supernatural. The book should contribute in establishing the right distances between them. As a Catholic I was struck by the description of rituals of other religions and their effects on the participants.
Personally, I think there is a serious difference between exalting this kind of experiences and pretending that they have never existed, and having the categories to see the extrema helps in finding the right path.
