What is Worship?
“Worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of mind with His truth; the purifying of imagination by His Beauty; the opening of the heart to His love; the surrender of will to His purpose – and all of this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable and therefore the chief remedy for that self-centeredness which is our original sin and the source of all actual sin."-William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury (1881-1944)
What do you think about this quote?
posted by DrewDog at 12:00 PM
14 Comments:
Sounds like a good argument for Exclusive Psalmody.
I am not sure I understand mike's comment.
That's hilarious! And a little more hair, too.
Thanks for taking my post so seriously.
It is all those things but as my pastor Jeff says, "worship means to bow down."
Yes, to bow down, or to kiss toward.
i think it is freaking awesome!
As an Anglican priest, I admit to being somewhat embarrassed by the Archbishop's pettifoggery. Admitted, all the things to which ++William equates worship are good things. But, to say they are worship is simply daft.
It took that non-Anglican (tho he wound up in that communion) Robert Webber to write a simple little book entitled Worship is a Verb. In other words, it's something to do, not something to feel, or something to experience. Garrett's pastor's comment is much closer to the idea, but only in an evocative way.
It only takes 15 minutes with Bible Gateway's internet concordance to figure out that what you see happening when people are worshiping in the Bible is pretty close to what folks have (until recently) done and called it worship: praying, singing, Scripture reading, giving alms, preaching, taking communion, baptizing. Nothing really radical at all. Except that after a little while longer, all that is going to radical in the most literal sense, because what most folks will want to call worship is actually a baptized hootenanny, pep rally, or Manhattan night club show.
Thanks for your comments, Brother Q. I agree with much of what you have written here.
One question, though. When Temple writes: “Worship is the submission of all our nature to God," is he not agreeing with Webber? This definition of worship seems almost like a metaverb. The submission of everything (which would obviously include praying, singing, Scripture reading, giving alms, preaching, taking communion, baptizing, etc.) to God seems to definately be something we do.
What do you think?
PS- Please stop by often and contribute your wisdom and eloquence!
What do you think?
Concerning your question, no. It is no compliance with Webber’s point that Temple suggests an indicative active verb in his statement (e.g. to worship is to submit all …&etc.) Temple passes into flummery with the the word “all.” Something which is everything is also nothing.
On the other hand, Temple’s continuing words cast worship wholly into the passive voices vis-à-vis the worshiper. In the following typing of Temple’s words, I have put those things that pertain to the worshiper in bold face, those which pertain to God in italics:
[Worship] is the quickening of conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of mind with His truth; the purifying of imagination by His Beauty; the opening of the heart to His love; the surrender of will to His purpose …
Throughout all these ideas by Temple, the worshiper is passive to the active God. And, while I do not deny that God is active in a worship service, the overall dynamic of worship is uni-directional, and that from the worshiper toward God. When Webber says “worship is a verb” it is clear from his exposition of this idea that the primary actor in worship is the one who is worshiping, while the primary recipient in worship is God. Temple’s purple prose puts the whole thing exactly backwards.
I’m willing to give Temple here some slack on the probability that he is speaking within a context where very, very much is assumed by him concerning his audience’s notions of worship and how it occurs, assumptions that need no express mention – namely all the diverse things which a worshiper does (in Temple’s framework) by way of submitting all his will and so forth. In other words, Temple is not immediately thinking of the standing, sitting, bowing, genuflecting, kneeling, singing, praying, reading of Scripture, listening to Scripture, listening to a sermon, confessing one’s sins, confessing the faith once delivered to the saints, offering of alms, the consumption of bread and wine, and all the rest. Instead, Temple seems to be attempting a sort of spiritual abstraction on all these particulars, without ever doubting that the particulars are there. In Temple’s day, in Temple’s context, all these things – the things to do, in Webber’s sense – were assumed by Temple to be “the givens” for his audience.
In our day, however, the notion of worship is utterly psychologized, internalized, individualized, and privatized. And, while Temple’s notions explicitly make God the active agent in worship, in today’s context God’s place is replaced by the Worship Team. Worship today is what happens to me, what I feel, how my own heart is strangely warmed, my own private sense of the feelings of awe, wonder, delight, and joy. Worship is produced by some (the worship team!) for others (God in all this is probably the best of the props). Worship is generated by a variety of techniques, devices, snake oil and stage fog, drum sets and multi-media extravaganzas. No more bread and wine; bread and circuses are so much more effective, dontcha know. And if it all has the casual bonhomie of The Johnny Carson Show, so much the better. Indeed, let’s make it look like the Johnny Carson Show’s Opening Monologue, and we’ll hit a worshipful home-run. Everyone can clap, cheer, and go home well entertained.
I’m off my feed today, Andrew. Ask me another time, and I’ll tell you what I really think.
BQ
Well put, BQ. I agree completely.
And perhaps the reason I was ok with this particular statement from Temple is because I assume all of the things that you suggested his original audience would have taken as a given regarding the particulars.
And I love your assesment of today's modern evangelical worship service. You really captured the essence of the issue.
Where are you located? I want to attend to your church sometime!
Cheers
Where are we located? Why in the sticks, of course!
http://www.stathanasiusuac.org
BQ
Hallo I absolutely adore your site. You have beautiful graphics I have ever seen.
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I love your website. It has a lot of great pictures and is very informative.
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What a great site, how do you build such a cool site, its excellent.
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