Conviction

Had an interesting chat yesterday with some folks interested in religious studies at Monash University, a huge university in the Melbourne 'burbs. We'd just heard a fascinating paper by Tamara Prosic on the Kol Nidre, a popular part of Yom Kippur services of unknown provenance which various rabbis have tried unsuccessfully to remove from the liturgy over the years. Kol Nidre is a vow annulling vows, and so in a way annuls the Other with whom one has entered into a vow, and seems very close to challenging the Covenant. Prosic argued that it is a kind of collective repetition of the trauma of conversion to monotheism, and spoke eloquently about the challenge of redescribing what had been experienced as a centrally important relationship as null. Kol Nidre, like old scapegoating rituals, makes a space for the renounced god and then refuses to treat him as a god, or even existing.

The discussion broadened out to conversion, monotheism, tolerance, religious pluralism... Someone asked if there were contemporary conclusions one might draw from the analysis, and I suggested that we should realize that religious conversion is a tougher thing than people realize, with ongoing psychic repercussions of which individuals and communities may not be aware.

But then it became clear I was operating on an assumption others did not quite share - that belief is a good thing, and that people can and should be seeking something to believe. In classes I often stress that conviction is trivialized by a consumerist understanding of religion (as if one could choose to believe something, to be persuaded by something!); the paper suggested that true conviction and conversion are more psychically overpowering than we tend to think, and so likely to cause psychological repercussions for a long time. That's something it would be good for people to know about themselves, as well as about others.

Over beer in the faculty club it became clear that the dark side of conviction was not news. Most belief is feigned, people agreed, but that was probably for the best; the worst may be the people who actually believe. I'm as suspicious as the next person of people who tell you what they believe, but there does seem to be an interesting difference. If America's about belief, Australia's about skepticism. Two societies born of the Enlightenment but so different!

The picture above has nothing to do with conviction. (Or does it?)

It's a work of sculpture made with found wood for the Commonwealth Games, held a few months ago here in Melbourne. It's on the beach of St. Kilda and called Our Lady of St. Kilda. (You can see the St. Kilda pier is behind it.) A quick internet search suggests that St. Kilda is a saint unknown but for an island off the coast of Scotland named after her. This beach may have been named after a boat (Our Lady of St. Kilda) which may have been named after the island, or a woman who lived there. Hence an unseaworthy boat made of already used materials.

Though deliberately ephemeral, this fanciful recreation of the Lady of St. Kilda has proved very popular, and found its way into people's consciousness. An article in The Age reported that an old lady had been overheard saying, "oh, it's been here for years."