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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.
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