worship

—worshiper, n. —worshipingly, adv.

/werr"ship/, n., v., worshiped, worshiping or (esp. Brit.) worshipped, worshipping.

n.

1. reverent honor and homage paid to God or a sacred personage, or to any object regarded as sacred.

2. formal or ceremonious rendering of such honor and homage: They attended worship this morning.

3. adoring reverence or regard: excessive worship of business success.

4. the object of adoring reverence or regard.

5. (cap.) Brit. a title of honor used in addressing or mentioning certain magistrates and others of high rank or station (usually prec. by Your, His, or Her).

v.t.

6. to render religious reverence and homage to.

7. to feel an adoring reverence or regard for (any person or thing).

v.i.

8. to render religious reverence and homage, as to a deity.

9. to attend services of divine worship.

10. to feel an adoring reverence or regard.

[bef. 900; (n.) ME wors(c)hipe, worthssipe, OE worthscipe, var. of weorthscipe; see WORTH, -SHIP; (v.) ME, deriv. of the n.]

Syn. 3. honor, homage, adoration, idolatry. 7. honor, venerate, revere, adore, glorify, idolize, adulate.

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▪ religion

Introduction

      broadly defined, the response to the appearance of that which is accepted as the holy—that is, to a sacred, transcendent power or being. Characteristic modes of response to the holy include cultic acts of all kinds: ritual drama, prayers of many sorts, dancing, ecstatic speech, veneration of various persons and objects, sermons, silent meditation, and sacred music and song. Also included in worship are acts of private response: spoken or unspoken prayers, silence, the assumption of particular postures, ritual acts and gestures, and individual acts of veneration of persons or objects.

Nature and significance

      The performance of acts of worship rests upon the assumption that there is a realm of being that transcends the ordinary (i.e., secular or profane) “world” of the worshipper. Acts of worship serve to unite, temporarily at least, the ordinary and the transcendent realms through one or more of a variety of possible means. According to the imagery of this assumption, the heavenly world is above and apart from the earthly, and the reality and powers of the heavenly realm are made to be effectively present on earth through acts of worship. The worshipper may thus find himself transported from the earthly to the heavenly world or may perceive the heavenly to descend to the earthly through the movement of worship.

      The act of uniting the sacred and profane realms, in effect, transforms the situation of the worshipper into one that means health, fresh understanding, renewal of life, or salvation. The situation that prompts worship thus calls for change or for the acknowledgment of change. Frequently, life is recognized to be in need of renewal, and worship is viewed as offering the path to such renewal. Some acts of worship arise from the need of the worshipper to exult in praise of the holy and to express his joy or gratitude that his situation, in fact, has changed for the better.

      In both instances, the change is widely believed to take place through the worshipper's return, by means of the acts of worship, to primordial time (as in primitive religions), to the realm in which unity and blessedness obtain. Public acts of ritual often include the recitation of myths of creation or of origin; such recitation transports the worshipper from ordinary time and circumstance back to the beginnings of things. The result is the reconstitution of the world itself and of the worshipper within the world.

      Worship, especially in ancient societies, was no matter of indifference to the society at large, for the very continuation of life demanded it. In hunting and food-gathering societies, the continuance of sources of food depended upon the performance of ritual acts through which the means of sustaining life were preserved or secured. In agricultural societies, the fructification of the soil took place in relation to acts of worship focussed upon fertility (e.g., in Syrian and Palestinian religions). In the religion of the state (e.g., ancient Rome), the preservation of the society in times of danger depended upon appropriate acts of worship through which the power of the holy was focussed upon the community's particular need.

      In ancient societies (and in some contemporary communities) worship was viewed as affecting all aspects of the life of the community, since it was recognized to provide the means for preserving and renewing life itself. Most of the arts developed in relation to worship and to statecraft and law, and the practical (technical) arts generally gained legitimacy and continuing force through their place in the ritual and liturgical acts of the community. In many ancient societies, the chief institutions (e.g., monarchies) and customs of the society were understood to be derivative from their prototypes or archetypes (archetype) in the realm of the gods. Kingship (king) was patterned upon divine kingship; worship itself had its heavenly archetype; and the representations of the gods and goddesses were modelled upon the divine beings themselves or upon replicas of them in the heavenly place of worship.

Functions of worship

Primary functions

      The basic function of worship—the establishment and maintenance of the relation between man and the holy—includes many facets. The relation between the holy and the earthly has, however, a noteworthy ambivalence. On the one hand, man's life is enriched and renewed through ever closer relations with the divine. On the other hand, the holy represents threatening, potentially damaging power, for the force of the holy so greatly transcends that of man that its coming is recognized as a grave danger. This double relationship to the gods has been summed up in various ways. The Latin expression do ut des, “I give, that you may give,” voices some of the dimensions. The worshipper turns to the gods with his gifts (e.g., sacrifices, prayers, words of praise and adoration, and petitions), and the gods receive these and bestow the gifts on which human life depends. The other dimension of the relationship is signalled by the Latin do ut abeas, “I give, that you may go (and stay) away.” The divine power must be averted in order to preserve human life. The gods can become the enemies of man, and worship can function to keep the gods at a safe distance.

      The rites of worship well document this double attitude of worshippers toward the holy. The sacred precincts are most holy because at them the holy once appeared and continues to appear. Thus, the precincts must be guarded, worship must be performed in the right manner, and the sanctity of the site identified and maintained.

      Acts of sacrifice include gifts to the gods in exchange for gifts received or anticipated. They also include offerings entirely devoted to the gods, none of which is touched again by the worshipper; these are sacrifices intended to avert the wrath of the gods or to express the worshipper's complete dependence upon them. The most characteristic sacrifice, however, is one in which both the beneficence and the danger of the holy are affirmed: sacrifices that relate the divine and the human, that express and create communion between God and man. These communion sacrifices generally take the form of a meal (e.g., in Mithraism) that worshipper and deity share. Care must still be taken not to infringe upon the deity's rights or desires, but the mood of such sacrificial meals is one of sacramental (sacrament) participation in the life and beneficence and power of the god.

Secondary functions

      Secondary functions of worship—highly significant for the social and personal life of the community—are distinguishable, although their interrelationship is evident. An important function of worship is the creation and maintenance of social concord in societies dominated by one religion. The understandings expressed in worship bind the members of the society together. The acts of worship celebrate and symbolize this unity when the majority of the members of the society regularly engage in common worship. In Muslim lands, for example, the regular division of the day into five parts through the call of the muezzin (official proclaimer) to prayer and the daily gatherings in the mosque unite the society and express its common commitments and character.

      A second function of worship is the creation and maintenance of views and attitudinal stances that identify the members of the society to each other and in relation to other groups. Worship thus involves social learning: the members of the community, through their common worship, learn how to plant, to cultivate the soil, to hunt game, to engage in warfare, to settle disputes, to relate to the various strata of the society. Worship displays and reinforces the character of the society; the traditions are passed along through the worship of the community. In this way, acts of worship sum up and reinforce the moral and cultural commitments and understandings of the community. In a situation in which one religion predominates, such social learning pervades the entire society. This situation formerly pertained, for example, in Ethiopia, where the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (church and state) was closely identified with the character and objectives of the state, and in Buddhist Tibet before the Chinese invasion in 1950.

      The worship of a particular group within a society performs the same purposes for that group. Group concord is effected and maintained through the rites and formal acts of group worship. The celebration of fundamental understandings and values through worship bestows solidity and substance on them so that they become a part of the divinely ordained system of laws, customs, and social practices. Doctrines or dogmas are significantly strengthened and reinforced through worship, and religious truths become a part of the very existence of a group as they are embodied in the art, music, drama, and public rites of the worshipping community. Group learning also is effected, since occasions for worship offer opportunity for the group to reflect upon the significance of its history, rites, and traditions and to celebrate the import of these. The remembrance of deliverance from Egypt (i.e., the Exodus, 13th century BC) became a regular part of the celebration of Passover for the Jews.

      A third function of worship is that of providing personal support to individual members of a group or of a society. Because life is marked by anxiety, disasters, and dangers from natural and historical happenings, the individual is provided with a sense of well-being through acts of worship. Worship is viewed as relating the disparate elements of life to the life, purposes, and plans of the divine; and in this way the worshipper is enabled to believe that the burden has been shared, or taken over, by the gods.

      Since acts of worship need to be performed in the “right” way in order to be efficacious, there is a strong tendency toward conservatism regarding the forms and understandings of worship. The desire for release of personal or group anxiety also makes it likely that the practice of worship may support conservatism within the group, since the tendency is to rely upon past solutions to personal or group problems long after the time when such solutions appear to be entirely satisfactory. This conservatism belongs to the nature of religion, inasmuch as religion deals precisely with those issues of life that yield no easy resolution or solution: the mystery of life itself, the travails of birth, initiation into the community of adults, marriage, sickness, public disasters, and death. It is of great social importance that worship brings to the group and its members a sense of the enduring qualities of life, hope for a doubtful future, and a sense of well-being and health in the midst of trials and illness and danger. The result, however, can also be that the forward movement of the society is inhibited by the religious traditions and claims of a past age that are regularly reinforced through acts of worship.

Types of worship

      The forms and types of worship are extraordinarily rich and varied. Three types may be distinguished: corporate exclusive worship; corporate inclusive worship; and personal worship.

Corporate exclusive worship

      Exclusive corporate worship is worship that belongs to the group alone. Such exclusive groups may understand their distinct status over against other groups on the basis of a divine mission in the world (e.g., Judaism, Christianity, and Islām), of clan, social, or initiatory distinctions (e.g., totemic societies, Gnostic groups), or by reference to certain ritual or ethical commitments and practices (e.g., Seventh-day Adventists) characteristic of the group. Study of contemporary religious groups discloses many similarities of belief among these exclusive communities, and distinctions considered unique by the group may not be unique at all—but they are perceived to be unique.

      Among the exclusive types, the mystery religions (mystery religion) (e.g., Eleusinian) of the Mediterranean world are particularly well-known. The worship of such communities (also including Gnostic (Gnosticism) sects—i.e., Christian dualistic heretical groups) centred in the sharing of secret knowledge concerning the origin of the world, the true nature of mankind, and man's proper vocation and destiny. An elaborate system of initiation brought the new member into the community. The community maintained its exclusiveness through the passing on of the secret lore to new members through rites designed to free the devotee from the hold of the material world and thus prepare the way for his ascent to the realm of the divine, from which he had been separated.

      Totemic (totemism) societies are drawn and held together by the recognition of the significance of the animal or object that embodies and displays the holy in their midst. Signs worn or placed on the body identify the adherents of the society. Groups otherwise quite similar in language, customs, religious rites, social behaviour, and culture are held distinct from one another through the power of the totem, and worship underscores and helps to maintain this exclusivism.

      Certain social or ethical commitments operate to single out the exclusiveness of religious communities and to define their form of worship. The commitment of Mennonites (Mennonite) (a Christian (Christianity) group originating during the 16th century) to refuse participation in acts of war, for example, affects the character of their worship as well as of their general religious life. The worship is conducted over against the larger society, especially the power and commitments of the state. It centres upon peace (pacifism) and reconciliation, upon the moral demands laid upon each worshipper, underscoring the need for worship that issues in the service of fellowmen caught up in the evil of warfare.

      The worship of the “gathered church” has a similar character: Baptists, Congregationalists (congregation), and many of the free churches—i.e., those not connected with the state (including Mennonites)—engage in a form of worship that stresses the need for each member to make his own confession of faith and to identify personally the character of his religious commitment. The new member must enter such a community on the basis of personal testimony and commitment. Those who do not share these commitments are, in principle (if not in actual fact), not to be accepted into membership.

      Racial, ethnic, and language distinctions also can operate to create and maintain exclusive communities. African American churches of the United States, though open to members who are not African American, have become, in many sections of the United States, exclusive communities, largely through the exclusion of blacks from white churches. The worship of African American communities has incorporated elements from African religions and has focused upon forms of worship appropriate to a people oppressed by the larger society and excluded from many of its benefits. The service generally is “freer” than that of the white churches, including a more significant place for congregational singing and responses and more active participation by the congregation than has become customary in most white churches.

      Many other exclusive communities could be mentioned: new religious groups in Japan and African countries (e.g., nativistic religious movements), in the United States and Canada (e.g., the Churches of Christ, the Nazarenes, the Black Muslims), and in western European countries. These communities give prominence in worship to those features that called them into existence: sectarian religious concerns, nationalism, dissatisfaction with the worship and ideas of the dominant religious communities, or other distinctive commitments.

      Women have been excluded from full participation in acts of worship by several religious communities, though this exclusivism, or discrimination, is being challenged in the 20th century, and changes have begun to occur.

Corporate inclusive worship

      The second type is corporate inclusive worship, which probably has been numerically the largest throughout human history. Members of a society are, in virtue of birth, included as members of the worshipping community (e.g., the Lutheran churches of Scandinavia) or at least potential members. Though there may be rites of entrance that are to be observed, these frequently become no more than conventional acts, placing few demands upon the initiate. The ancient Greek (Greek religion) and Roman (Roman religion) city-states observed acts of worship that were open to the entire populace, since they were a fixed part of the ceremonial and political life of the state. The sanctuaries and ceremonies often were cared for at state expense, and the leaders of worship were officials of the state.

      In American (United States) Christianity, many churches engage in such corporate inclusive worship, even though they may have their fixed doctrines and requirements for membership. The Holy Communion (Eucharist) (Lord's Supper) often is open to all who wish to communicate. Some congregations have been organized as community churches; i.e., not belonging to any of the recognized denominations; in these, worship is, of course, inclusive. Participation in worship is generally open to those who wish to take part, irrespective of creed or religious commitment. Members of one church may become members of another and take active part in the life of the new congregation, including its sacramental life, at will. Many of the distinctions marking off the large number of denominations or churches from one another have lost most of their significance.

      Participation in worship also is much less restricted than formerly in the Roman Catholic Church (Roman Catholicism), especially as a result of the “opening to the world” that followed the second Vatican Council (1962–65). The same inclusiveness is evident in other religions, especially with regard to participation in worship. Non-Jews in many areas are welcome to participate in Jewish worship even though they may not wish to become converts to Judaism. Worship in the temples and shrines of Hinduism or Buddhism or in Shintō shrines in Japan is not restricted to adherents of the religion. In general, the major religions of the world welcome nonmembers to their public acts of worship; special rites or ceremonies, however, may be reserved to members or initiates.

Personal worship

      The third type of worship is that of the individual. The individual's worship may centre in public events and ceremonies, but there is ample place in most religious communities for the devotions, prayers, and religious exercises of the individual, either lay or religious. In corporate acts of worship, fixed prayers, confessions, ritual acts, processions, and participation by empathy in the acts of the leader of worship all enrich the individual's own worship. Some persons are best able to worship in the company of fellow-worshippers, finding little meaning in acts of devotion done in solitude or even in the family circle. Some individuals may well find that special times and places, special rubrics and ceremonies, and a properly enclosed and framed setting for the appearance of the holy are necessary for their worship. Other individuals find the opposite to be the case; for them, the public and fixed occasions for worship lack meaning and intimacy, and they thus need to frame their own prayers, engage in their own devotions, and anticipate the appearance of the holy to themselves alone. In most religious communities and for most persons, a combination of public and private worship appears to be desirable. In the public acts of worship, the range and depth of the religious tradition are represented and affirmed; the power of the holy is made the more palpable. Especially in the modern Western world—in which erosion of traditional religion has occurred to a great extent—individuals are aided in acts of worship by the gathering of members of the community for public worship. They affirm together the faith that becomes increasingly difficult for the individual believer himself to affirm as genuinely his own faith.

      Personal worship, whether public or private, is often aided by the observance of disciplines and techniques that focus the attention of the worshipper upon the sacred or holy. Silence, devotional readings, set prayers, the rosary (beads used as a devotional aid in Roman Catholicism), bodily postures and attitudes, music, and works of art, including the icons (images) of Eastern Christian churches, all serve to help the worshipper to concentrate his apprehension of the power of the holy and to intensify his sense of the presence of the holy. The act of worship may aim at a temporary leaving behind of the ordinary concerns and activities of the individual, so that meditation on the divine may occur. It may have as its aim the union of the self with fellowmen and with the divine, as an act that brings the divine powers effectively into the life of the worshipper for that time and for coming days. Or it may be a part of an act of religious devotion aimed at continuing union with the divine (as in mysticism), the sloughing off of natural existence, or a move toward “divinization” (becoming divine).

Variations or distinctions within the act of worship

      Worship may be distinguished with regard to the kind of devotion extended to the holy. Worship (Greek latreia) in the narrow sense is considered by many religions to be directed to the divine alone: to God in Judaism, Christianity, and Islām and to Amitābha (Buddha) in Mahāyāna (the Greater Vehicle) Buddhism. To worship any being or object other than God alone is thus understood to be an engagement in idolatry, though other beings, persons, or objects may be shown lesser forms of veneration because of their special relationship to the divine.

      Certain persons are viewed as being entitled to major veneration (Greek hyperdoulia). Among these, the best known are the Virgin Mary in Christianity, especially Roman Catholic Christianity, the bodhisattvas (Buddhas-to-be) in Mahāyāna Buddhism, the prophet Muḥammad in Islām, and Jesus in Christian churches that do not emphasize Jesus as the divine Son of God in their worship.

      Lesser, or minor, veneration (Greek doulia) is extended to the saints (saint) of the church in many Christian groups, but especially in the Roman Catholic Church and in Eastern Orthodox churches. The saints are understood to participate in the power of God in virtue of their holy lives and (often) their martyrdom. The saints make intercession in behalf of the worshipper before God and, joining their voices with his, bring about the blessing sought. The relics (relic) of the saints are shown veneration as well and are sometimes believed to effect cures or to perform miracles. The forefathers (patriarchs) Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were venerated in ancient Israel and were named frequently in prayers to God. Veneration of saints also occurs in Buddhism, Jainism, and Islām.

      Worship that places emphasis upon the Virgin Mary or upon the lives or relics of the saints has been called idolatry by reforming groups. The danger of idolatry is held to be its tendency to disperse the commitment of the worshipper, to detract from the glory and honour due to God alone. No person or object in the world of God's creation, according to ancient Israel, was entitled to worship; images of the deity were dangerous because of this fact. According to reforming critics the tendency is to slip from religion into magic whenever worship is not centred upon God alone. Magic and religion are difficult to distinguish, but the operational difference in worship is recognizable: worship is response to the holy, the divine, the powers of which are not controllable. Magic represents an act designed precisely to control the power of the holy and to direct it to one's own ends.

      But devotion to the Virgin Mary, to the bodhisattvas, to the saints or their relics in various religions, to the icons of the saints in Eastern Christianity should not be considered idolatry. Rather, such devotion is intended to acknowledge the power of the divine and the beauty, nobility, and moral excellence of those who stand in an intimate relationship to God or the sacred realm. Thus, worship of God is accomplished by way of devotion to those whose lives have been touched by the sacred or holy in special ways.

Times and places of worship

Sacred seasons

      Worship takes place at appointed seasons and places. The religious calendar is thus of great importance for the worshipping community, since communities associate worship with critical times in the life of the society. The hunting, planting, and harvesting seasons are of special importance. The beginning of the year (at the time of the spring or fall equinox or of the summer or winter solstice, normally), of the new moon (occasionally, the full moon), or of the week is viewed as an especially auspicious time for acts of worship. Special festivities (feast) peculiar to the community's geographical or historical existence also provide fixed occasions for worship.

      In communities with an elaborate structure for worship, the day frequently is divided into appointed periods for worship (e.g., in Christianity among monastic communities and in Islām). Days commemorating the birth (e.g., December 25 in Christianity) or death of the founder of the religion may be of special significance for worship. Commemoration of the lives of the saints also involves special prayers and acts of devotion for certain communities.

      In the ordering of time for worship, the recognition that the holy appears most powerfully on fixed occasions is important. On New Year's (New Year festival) Day in many ancient societies (and in some contemporary communities), the act of worship is viewed as actually recreating the cosmos itself. Through the recitation of the myth of the world's creation (creation myth), the worshippers are drawn back into primordial time, to the fount of natural and historical existence, and participate in the renewal of the world order. In the ancient Near East, such celebrations were of fundamental significance for the society. The Akitu festival of the Babylonians (Babylonia) occurred in the spring, marking the rebirth of nature, the reestablishment of the kingship by divine authority, and the securing of the life and destiny of the people for the coming year. The agricultural (agriculture, origins of) rhythm of preparing the soil, planting, watering, harvesting, and waiting for the earth to become ready for planting again was the decisive natural factor in many of these seasonal festivals. The world grew old, its fertility languished, but, at the appointed time, new life began to stir and nature was ready once again to produce its bounty.

      Ancient Israelite festivities were, for the most part, nature festivals originally, but they came to be associated with historical events in the life of the community. The barley harvest in the early spring was related to the deliverance (the Passover) of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. The wheat harvest (Pentecost (Shavuot), or the Feast of the Weeks), about seven weeks later, commemorated the giving of the divine Law (the Ten Commandments) at Mt. Sinai. The celebration of the harvest of the summer fruits and the olives in the early fall (Sukkot, or Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkoth)) was associated with the period of wanderings in the wilderness, prior to the entrance of the Israelites into the Promised Land (Canaan, or Palestine). In this way, the worship of the community was tied to events in its early history, the powerful attraction of worship connected with natural fertility was held in check, and the community's worship was thereby enabled to focus upon the moral and social demands of the deity. A similar “historicizing” of seasonal festivals occurred in other religious communities (e.g., Iranian religion, Christianity, Islām). See also calendar: Ancient and religious calendar systems (calendar).

Sacred places

      Worship has its appointed places. A place of worship became sacred and suitable by virtue of the holy's appearing at that place. Sacred places were also sites of natural and historical significance for the community: springs, river crossings, threshing places, trees or groves where the community gathered for public business, hills or mountains where there was safety from enemies, and other such areas. Mountains were of particular importance, since they were understood to bring the worshipper into closer relationship with the heavenly realm.

      A centre for worship takes on a special character, once it has come to be recognized as the place where the holy regularly appears. In some religions it represents the centre of the earth, often called the “navel” of the earth, the place that constitutes the meeting place of God and man, heaven and earth. The sanctity of such a place must be preserved. Thus, the need arises for officials to guard the holy place and to instruct worshippers regarding the kind of acts of worship suitable to the gods at that place. Also, the site must be marked off and its sacred precincts identified. A holy place that once was marked by no more than a sacred stone on which gifts were placed and sacrifices made would thus become the location of a house for the god, a temple.

      Places are selected for worship for other reasons. Shrines, temples, and mosques have been built to commemorate a particular experience of an individual leader of the community. Places also become holy because of the association of a holy man with the locality. The home of the shaman (a medicine man with psychic and healing powers), for example, is viewed as holy simply because he, a spirit-filled person, resides there. The place of retreat of a hermit may become a place of pilgrimage and of worship, and the site of a miracle is often commemorated because miracles continue to occur there.

      Established places of worship came to be characteristic of the major religions. Temples,mosques, and churches were erected at state expense or through the beneficence of kings, merchants, bankers, or religious leaders. Architectural patterns became established, with the result that mosques, churches, or temples would normally be built in a set style, with a fixed orientation. Many temples and churches were oriented toward the rising sun so that its rays at sunrise would enter the door of the building from the east.

      Sacred time and space provide the structure within which worshippers respond to the holy in orderly ways. The danger exists, of course, that such acts of worship at precisely the right time and place may make of worship a routine thing, debilitating the spontaneity of the act or the openness to fresh perspectives and experiences. Orderly and timely worship places bounds upon the fear with which worshippers approach the holy. It provides an established mode of approaching God that can evoke from worshippers genuine spontaneity while offering a setting that is rich in aesthetic and intellectual, as well as spiritual, powers.

Focuses of worship

Objects

      Religious communities are aided in worship through a variety of objects and activities. The power of the holy is focussed not only in sacred spots and on special occasions but also in animate and inanimate objects. Altars (altar) of earth, stone, or metal are extremely common. Some altars are quite simple, formed of beaten earth or consisting of natural stone unshaped by tools. Others are formed of clay or metal or carved from stone, with grain, animals, incense, plants, and flowers the most common offerings at the altar. The altar and the sacrifice both participate in the sacredness of the act of worship and thus are removed from the ordinary realm. The ashes of sacrificed victims must be disposed of with care, just as the altar and the victims must be prepared carefully before the offering occurs. One of the chief duties of the leader of worship is to assist the worshipper in making a proper sacrifice: inspecting the offering, guiding the worshipper as he makes the offering, or performing the act in the worshipper's behalf.

      The sacred scriptures (scripture) of the religious community, the pulpit or stand from which readings and preaching take place, beads or other objects used by the worshipper as he performs his devotions also focus attention upon the holy and participate in its powers. Images (iconography) of the gods, totems, or other religious objects—in a variety of forms and materials—also have been employed in worship. Such objects must be understood to represent, not to be identical with, the divine being or power that they portray. Some religious communities (Judaism and Islām in particular) have placed severe limits on the making and use of such representations of the deity. For many religious communities, however, worship without objects representing the gods is impoverished (as in Hinduism); worshippers apparently need such portrayals of the presence of the divine among them. The plastic arts (e.g., sculpture) have flourished as a result of such religious usage, despite the danger that the representation can indeed become identified with the holy and worshippers come to believe that they are enabled to exercise control over the gods.

Activities

      Activities likewise have had a significant import in focussing attention on the holy. The divine liturgy of Eastern Orthodox churches provides a dramatic portrayal of the view that God works for the salvation of mankind. Incense, vestments, icons, music, and the processional and ritual movements of the liturgy are united into a re-enactment of Christian deliverance from the powers of sin and death and move the congregation toward active participation in the divine life.

      The sacred dance also has occupied a large place in worship, including dances in connection with hunting, marriage, fertility rites, Islāmic mysticism (dervishes), and the Christian liturgy. Dancing serves in particular to open the way for religious ecstasy, a phenomenon known in many religions. The shaman of Central Asia, the medicine men among the American Indians and Australian Aborigines, and many other leaders in worship are susceptible to ecstatic seizure. Ecstatic utterance was characteristic of the priestesses at Delphi in ancient Greece and of the sibyls (prophetesses) at a number of Greek and Roman cult sites, as well as of participants of Pentecostal worship services in Christianity in the 20th century. Evidence of a person's being overwhelmed and overpowered by the Spirit has been highly valued in many religions and continues to be honoured among some.

      Other activities include prayers (public and private, which are a part of almost all acts of worship), the preaching or teaching that accompanies many services of worship, and the active silence of worship (e.g., the Quakers of Christianity). Music is another of the most widespread activities of worship. Certain forms of music are considered unsuitable for worship—the group of free churches known as Churches of Christ, for example, prohibit instrumental music in worship.

Other focuses

      Other means for focussing attention on the presence of the holy have a long and significant place in worship. The veneration of ancestors is known in many religious communities (e.g., Confucianism, Shintō); shrines in honour of the ancestors were maintained in Greek and Roman homes in antiquity. Heroes of the tribe, the region, or the city were also focuses for acts of devotion in many religions.

      The most noteworthy focus of worship in a vast number of religious communities, however, was the king or the emperor. The king (sacred kingship) was viewed in ancient Egypt as the incarnate deity, entitled to be worshipped along with the other gods. In early Mesopotamian religion, the king was viewed as the adopted son of God and was venerated along with the high god. Kingship was believed to be a gift of the gods; the king represented the god on earth and partook of his divine powers.

      The desire of worshippers to have an example of strength, beauty, wisdom, and riches appears to be the motive behind the great honour lavished upon kings and emperors. Impoverished persons apparently took pleasure in the rich dress, the many wives, the corpulence, and the lavish expenditures of their kings, even as they resented their own deprivation. Worship was believed to be enriched by the indications of excess, the overabundance of vitality and riches. These were pointers to the heavenly world, to the richness of life for which the worshipper longed and prayed. Thus, much of the trappings of worship and the lavishness of temples, churches, and shrines is accounted for by this longing for opulence on the part of those denied it.

      Priests (priesthood) and ministers of religion also serve as focuses for worship. The leader may wish not to be associated too closely with the power of the holy, but, even so, worshippers tend to attach to such persons a special quality of holiness, or a special capacity to mediate the divine powers through acts of worship and through their counsel. The leader's primary function is, in fact, to enable the worshipper to participate more actively in the act that is designed to produce communion between the divine and the human.

Conclusion

      It is not necessary to believe in a personal God or a transcendent heavenly power in order to worship. Essential to an act of worship is the belief that there are powers outside of one's present experience that can be brought to bear upon that experience through prayer, meditation, or some other act of worship. A full human life may often require acts and modes of celebration—activities that bring into focus the heights and depths of man's being and experience—that offer a way to transcend and understand ordinary existence and provide renewal of life for man and for the world itself.

Walter Harrelson

Additional Reading

Mircea Eliade, Traité d'histoire des religions (1949; Eng. trans., Patterns in Comparative Religion, 1958), is a standard work with much information on worship. James G. Frazer, The Worship of Nature (1926), is a classic work but is now out of date. Walter Harrelson, From Fertility Cult to Worship (1969); and F.H. Hilliard, How Men Worship (1965), are popular, brief treatments of worship in the major religions. John S. Mbiti, Concepts of God in Africa (1970), has valuable source materials but is difficult to use because of the variety of materials placed together. Geoffrey Parrinder, Worship in the World's Religions (1961), is a popular work, accurate and helpful, but brief. H.H. Rowley, Worship in Ancient Israel (1967), is a standard and comprehensive work. Evelyn Underhill, Worship (1936), is a standard work, still valuable, but now out of date. Geoffrey Wainwright, Doxology: The Praise of God in Worship, Doctrine and Life (1980), argues that all Christian themes come to a focus in worship.

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