RITUAL / RITES
200translated into English as Freedom and
Nature (1966). In fact, we can recognize
today how enduring the significance of
this early project remains in Ricoeur, not
only for the question of how to resolve
“the conflict of interpretations” between
two domains of discourse—for which
“freedom” and “nature” represent only the
first example of Ricoeur’s attempts to
mediate conflicting interpretations—but
also for the phenomenological method
which Ricoeur began to develop in the
1930s and 40s. During World War II,
Ricoeur was a prisoner of war of
Germany and was able to read Edmund
Husserl in German. It is Husserl’s method
of phenomenological description that dis-
tinctively characterizes Ricoeur’s account
of acts of willing, while also developing as
a crucial characteristic of the rest of his
philosophical thinking.
English translations of Ricoeur’s major
works include The Symbolism of Evil
(1967), Freud and Philosophy (1970),
The Conflict of Interpretations (1974), The
Rule of Metaphor (1977), Hermeneutics
and the Human Sciences (1981), Lectures
on Ideology and Utopia (1986), Time and
Narrative (3 vols., 1984–1988), From Text
to Action (1991), Oneself as Another
(1993), The Just (2000), Memory, History,
Forgetting (2004), and The Course of Rec-
ognition (2005). Although he strictly
separated his religious and philosophical
writings, these areas converge in his dis-
cussion of forgiveness as a private com-
plement to public justice in his Memory,
History, Forgetting (2004) and in his
discussion of agape as a love that incurs
no debts in his The Course of Recognition
(2005).
Ricoeur held a chair of general phi-
losophy at the Sorbonne during the 1960s
and was given an honorary Ph.D. in
Divinity from the University of Chicago
in 1967, after which he joined the
Chicago faculty, holding positions in
both Chicago and Paris until his retire-
ment. Ricoeur was in demand as a
lecturer in numerous countries and he
received many honors (including one
from the Pope) reflecting his contribu-
tion to philosophy, politics, and history-
tradition-critical rationality, as well as to
other social, religious, and intellectual
concerns.RITUAL / RITES. Religious rites are
repeatable symbolic actions involving
the sacred. Such rites include prayers
involving praise (worship or adoration),
petition and confession, vows, commis-
sions such as ordination, rites of passage
such as baptism, confirmation, marriage
ceremonies, funeral rites and burials,
communion or the Eucharist (also called
Mass or the Lord’s Supper), feasts, fasts,
alms giving, vigils, lamentations, blessings,
thanksgiving, grace before meals, and
contemplative or meditative prayer.ROMAN CATHOLICISM. Roman
Catholicism is the style of Christianity
found in the Roman Catholic Church
(RCC). While this has much in common