[Nagot Gick Fel]

Arryn said:
It would be utter blasphemy to believe that one could summon a deity, as one might summon some common beast.

Hah, but you forget you're not really playing a deity in Dominions - only a creature powerful enough to pretend to be one, and to inspire faith great enough onto its followers to achieve miracles .

Having said the above, the calling of one's god, in game terms, is a ritualized ceremony done by one or more priests with the explicit and sole purpose of summoning said deity.

And you could as well add, "the smiting of one's god's enemies (Banishment, Smite, Holy Avenger), is one or more priests calling the god's power thru prayer with the explicit and sole purpose of defeating said deity's enemies". Same with Sermon of Courage and Fanaticism - after all, these two and preaching have the same objective: strenghtening the god's followers' faith to inspire courage (soldiers) or piety (commoners), which both help the god's cause (to be the sole reigning deity).

It is inconsistent for the game to exclude this particular ritual from receiving the thematic bonus simply because it is focused at one's god and not the god's followers or enemies.

I don't think it is inconsistent.

I see it like this: Ceremonial Faith is a clergy thing, and I have no problem with a better organized clergy preaching the masses more efficiently without that ability being linked to the god's very essence. Ceremonial Faith is defined as a 'Special Dominions' section for convenience and this may be misleading, maybe if there was a separate Category for it in the nation design menu (eg, 'Nation Properties', ie things not depending on to the god), you would not have a problem with it. To me the preaching bonus of CF is more akin to the research bonus Sages get, except Sages are available to everyone, while your clergy is only available to you.