A classic title now republished, this reference work is devoted to matters of worship. It does not limit itself to any specific period, but covers all the Christian centuries. Nor is it devoted to one Church only, but attempts to be truly ecumenical. This lexicon contains over 800 entries, ranging from simple definitions to full-length articles tracing the history of the object or practice described. The entries selected are those that the student of liturgy is likely to encounter most frequently. Bibliographical references are given for the main items and a special feature where a liturgical document is concerned, is the listing of original texts and, when available, of translations together with critical studies if there are any directly bearing upon the subject. Cross-references are indicated by an asterisk. This book is an indispensable tool for all students of worship and indeed anyone interested in the history and practice of Christian liturgy.

In this evocative study, new perspectives are achieved by associating worship with topics with which it is not usually linked and by seeing it in new contexts. Thus to begin with worship is interpreted in terms oi'games theory, and later it is interpreted as a political act. In other chapters, worship is considered in relation to apparently disparate subjects: dance (does not dance detract from the supposed solemnity of worship?), sexuality (once inside the church door does one not have to suppose that we are all males?) and laughter (what, smiles in the sanctuary?). Behind the apparent arbitrariness there is a logical progression. Play, with which the analysis opens, is a matter of balance between freedom and rules. One activity which achieves this is dance, so that play leads on to dance and then to sexuality, since dance has an inescapable erotic quality. The kiss of peace has a possible sexual connotation, which calls for the paying of attention to harmony and conflict. Conflict relates to political struggle, and so on. From all this, the act of worship emerges, not as the following of fixed patterns, but as a creative act which demands the response of men's whole being in risk and involvement.

Western man has lost, it is argued, his sense of religious dread, of awe at the numinous, and with it a whole dimension of human experience. He is no longer aware of the holy. But is this claim entirely true ? Is holiness a matter of the numinous, of awe and religious dread ? Might not the holy now be encountered under a different form ? Professor Davies is convinced that man can and does still encounter the holy, but that he does so in and through, and not apart from the world, taking world to mean both human relations and the public life of man in history. So having established a model for the holy, he presents a great variety of disclosure situations, derived from novels, films, television documentaries and so on, within which the holy may be discerned, from the realms of personal relationships. sex, death, history, politics and work. The second part of the book then relates this thinking to the subject of worship. Beginning with the crisis of worship today it examines, with the help of insights provided by social anthropologists and sociologists, worship, ritual, community and fellowship. Further aid is sought from a consideration of some secular rituals, leading finally to a chapter on rites of modernization which spells out an understanding of worship related to the secular universe and the New Testament model of the holy.