Religion and Performance: Context, Nexus, Convergences, and Divergences

THADDEUS Grace Sofi; OBIDAH Solomon Yamma

doi:10.56201/ijrcp.vol.10.no8.2025.pg36.46

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Religion and Performance: Context, Nexus, Convergences, and Divergences

THADDEUS Grace Sofi; OBIDAH Solomon Yamma

Abstract

This study examines the intersection of religion and performance across Christianity, African Traditional Religion (ATR), and Islam, exploring how religious traditions incorporate performative elements while maintaining theological boundaries. The research identifies convergence in ritual enactment, musical and oral traditions, and sacred spaces, while noting divergences in theological intent, attitudes toward dramatic representation, and audience participation. ATR fully integrates performance within its religious framework, Christianity exhibits varying degrees of engagement, and Islam maintains stricter boundaries while embracing performative aspects, such as the physical movements and vocal intonations of prayer and recitation. [cite_start]Using qualitative methodology and comparative analysis of literature from religious studies, theology, anthropology, and performance theory, this study demonstrates that religious performances serve theological, communal, and transformative functions beyond aestheti... [cite: 5]

Keywords

ReligionPerformanceChristianityAfrican Traditional ReligionIslamRitual

References

y of a Nigerian Town (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2022), 156. Marion Holmes Katz, Prayer in Islamic Thought and Practice (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021), 143. Richard Schechner, Performance Studies: An Introduction (New York: Routledge, 2021), 42- 44. Catherine Bell, Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020), 56. Gordon W. Lathrop, Holy People: A Liturgical Ecclesiology (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2019), 79. Jacob K. Olupona, African Religions: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021), 98-100. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Islamic Art and Spirituality (London: Routledge, 2019), 112-115. James F. White, Christian Worship in Transition (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2020), 91. Rosalind I. J. Hackett, Art and Religion in Africa (London: Bloomsbury, 2022), 123. Marion Holmes Katz, Images of the Prophet in Islamic Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022), 67-70. [cite_start]Julianne Hazen, Sufism in North America: A Contemporary Perspective (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2021), 134. Victor Turner, From Ritual to Theatre: The Human Seriousness of Play (New York: PAJ Publications, 2021), 88. Monique M. Ingalls, Singing the... [cite: 5]

Religion and Performance: Context, Nexus, Convergences, and Divergences

Abstract

Keywords

References

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