I've got a template for a partial that I'd like to use and I'm wondering if it's possible to just render the thing without needing to send a mock request to a controller. I'm never going to need to render this to an AJAX call, so it seems silly to set up a controller and action, not to mention the security issues with making a private partial open to the world.
I think you need render_view. It skips both layout and controller action.