Smells and Bells

I thought that the St. John's Passion by Bach was a beautiful piece, which I really enjoyed listening to. However, despite the swelling music and beautiful singing, the experience didn't feel like a religious one to me. Perhaps this was because it was in a language I don't really understand and about a gospel I don't really believe in, but I could tell there was something more to it than that. If ritual is a mode of paying attention, then this piece of music clearly represents this mode in both its composition and its performance. It is religious music, but I didn't feel it. This is obviously not a shortcoming of the music, but a matter of what I find religious, what I feel compelled to pay attention to. Listening to this beautiful work of religious devotion, yet feeling no religious experience caused me to realize how personal a religious experience is, and I began asking myself some questions about what I do find religious, and what it means to find an exp...