Gudstjeneste og erkendelse – en Donaldsk analyse af kirkens gudstjenester og deres deltagere

The worship service of the Church has been an object of intenseinterest within both scholarly work and the everyday work of thecongregations. This article contributes to this ongoing discussion by acognitive analysis of selected services and groups of ritual participantsin the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Denmark. The theoreticalframework is the Canadian evolutionary psychologist Merlin Donald.His theory of the evolution of the human cognition is illustrated bya model that guides the analyses of both services and types of ritualparticipants. The analyses show differences between the cognitive approaches that dominate among the participants and the cognitive appealsthat dominate in the ritual procedures. In continuation of theseanalyses, the conclusion points to cognitive appeals within the ritualprocedures of the established church that may be elaborated on to adjustto the group of participants as well as to appeal to the full spectrumof cognitive strategies that any human being possess