The Importance of Being “ Ernest ”

1. Introduction In a scene in " The Importance of Being Earnest " Oscar Wilde pinpoints an array of properties of religious ritual systems that cognitive theorizing about religious rituals, viz., the theory of religious ritual competence, has subsequently systematized (Lawson and McCauley 1990; McCauley and Lawson 2002). To the amusement of hundreds of audiences, Wilde's play also identifies a conundrum for religious ritual systems. Cognitive theory about religious ritual suggests that the solutions to that conundrum may bear directly on the comparative advantages of religious systems in competitive religious markets. After briefly sketching some connections between cognition and religious ritual that constitute the foundations of my and Tom Lawson's theory of religious ritual competence in section 2, section 3 summarizes the theory's account of a set of systematic relations that arise in all religious ritual systems as a result of cognitive constraints on rituals' representation. Section 4 explores how increasing the frequency with which some religious rituals are performed purchases for a religious system some selective advantages but how realizing that pattern of ritual practices would require overcoming some formidable empirical and logical challenges. Wilde's handling of these matters in one of the scenes of his famous drawing room comedy is the subject of section 5. Section 6 discusses the relative promise of three ritual arrangements that offer hope of circumventing the conundrum, which this scene from " The Importance of Being Earnest " highlights. Section 7 shows that Wilde's treatment encapsulates the telltale features, save one (which is the source of the humor), that, according to the theory of religious ritual competence, would arise under such circumstances.