A taka for your thoughts

Welcome to a semi-regular part of the blog where I throw up a random question and ask for your thoughts (for those not used to blogs, you simply need to click on the word 'comments' at the end of this article to add your thoughts to the mix).

So last weekend I went in to Dhaka and visited a different church to the one I normally attend. It was a fairly high/traditional Anglican service, quite unlike the more charismatic one I've been going to. Although I've been a member of this kind of church in the past, the visit this time got me thinking about symbols. The priest had the full robes on, made the sign of the cross repeatedly and paused in the middle of the service to 'Bless the Palms' by sprinking them with holy water.

A lot of people really relish this kind of rich symbolism. They find it helps them understand or experience God in a new and deeper way. I can appreciate this point of view, but I've always been much more comfortable without too much of this kind of symbolism in church. God from my experience and what I see in the Bible is much more interested in what's happening inside you than in external show. The whole point of what Jesus did was to remove the barrier between us and God, so we could go to him directly. It seems counterproductive to put a whole lot of symbolism back between you and God. The upshot is, I feel a bit uncomfortable around lots of religious pomp and obscure symbols. This is an exception for me, because I like my literature, art, music, architecture etc to be packed with rich symbolism. Previously, I would have described myself as someone who didn't like many symbols in my faith.

I say 'previously' because all this anthropology has got me rethinking things. Anthropology used to be only about studying 'savages' in grass huts with funny rituals and illogical customs. Then someone embarrassed us all by pointing out that in fact, 'Western' rituals and customs are no less funny or illogical - in fact, sometimes more so, but because they were part of the home culture of the anthropologists nobody noticed how strange they were.

To return to the point, I've often noticed how much more symbolism there is in other people's churches or services (and indeed in other faiths) and smugly thought there wasn't much of it in mine, but now I find in fact there's just as much symbolism, but it's just more cunningly hidden. In many of the churches I've been to, for instance, the very absence of symbols such as the traditional church layout, stained glass windows, big wooden cross etc was in itself a symbol of those churches' historical/theological beliefs. Look at the massive bouts of iconoclasm and church redecoration that took place during the Reformation. The translation of the Bible you read has become an important symbol of all sorts of beliefs and affiliations in many churches. The tendency of churches today to be built wide and shallow is a very definite statement about inclusiveness and the importance of the congregation. In these churches the minister is often lower down and the congregation looks down to him; in others, the minister (and band) are elevated on a stage. None of these things are accidents - they're symbols of assumptions and beliefs so visceral we often don't perceive or voice them.

So, given that every sphere of human life is inherently full of symbols, my question to you is:

What place does symbolism have in your faith or faith generally? What place do you think it should have?

Thoughts please, and for goodness' sake don't be all worried about breaking Western taboos. I'm in a country where you start a conversation by bringing up religion or politics.