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On Religious Attitudes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

Peter C. Appleby
Peter C. Appleby
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of Philosophy, The University of Utah
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Extract

When Christians worship God, their cultic activities display, in widely varying combinations, attitudes of fear, respect, love, trust, awe, deference and obedience. They worship the Lord with all their heart, soul and strength, confessing their own insignificance in comparison to God, yet expressing confidence in the divine mercy which they believe will assist them through the trials of this life, toward a joyful existence beyond the grave. In the liturgical churches, the dominating mood varies according to the tables of feasts and fasts: Christmas and Easter are times for joyful song, brightly coloured vestments and festive activities. Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are days of penitence, sorrow and sombre hymnody. (‘Remember, Oh Man, that dust thou art…’) Throughout the year, the houses of worship are places of bowed heads and lowered voices, of respect and sobriety, and sometimes of veneration for icons and the objects used in worship. The inventory of revered objects varies considerably, as do the activities thought to be appropriate in this connection, ranging from the Low Protestant's respectful handling of the Bible to the High Churchman's prostration before the Monstrance, in the Benediction of the Holy Sacrament. But it is clear that divine worship normally involves reverence and awe and that it usually involves some form of self-abasement (bending the knee before).

Type
Articles
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 6 , Issue 4 , December 1970 , pp. 359 - 368
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1970

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References

page 359 note 1 Findlay, J. N., ‘Can God's Existence be Disproved?’, Mind, 1948.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Reprinted in Flew and MacIntyre, New Essays in Philosophical Theology.

page 360 note 1 Malcolm, Norman, ‘Anselm's Ontological Arguments’, The Philosophical Review, Vol. LXIX, No. 1.Google Scholar Reprinted in Hick, and McGill, , The Many-Faced Argument, Macmillan Co., New York, 1967, p. 313.Google Scholar

page 360 note 2 Tillich, Paul, Systematic Theology, Vol. I, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1951, p. 11.Google Scholar See also Dynamics of Faith (Cambridge, 1957), Ch. III, sec. 2Google Scholar and Kegley, and Bretall, , eds., The Theology of Paul Tillich (New York, 1959), Part III, pp. 333–42.Google Scholar

page 361 note 1 Hartshorne, Charles, The Logic of Perfection (Open Court Publishing Co., LaSalle, 1962), p. 40.Google Scholar

page 361 note 2 Penelhum, Terrence, ‘Divine Goodness and the Problem of Evil’, Religious Studies, Vol. 2, p. 99.Google Scholar

page 362 note 1 Hartshorne, Charles, Man's Vision of God (Willett, Clark and Co., New York, 1941), p. 5.Google Scholar

page 363 note 1 Findlay, J. N., op. cit., p. 52.Google Scholar

page 363 note 2 Findlay, J. N., op. cit., p. 50.Google Scholar

page 364 note 1 Cf. Benedict, Ruth, Patterns of Culture (New American Library, New York, 1934), Chapter V.Google Scholar

page 365 note 1 I state this point quite strongly, not only because of the anomalies which result from the contrary opinion (e.g. the worship of Father Divine), but also because I believe that respect for persons, including oneself, and the adoption of a principle of fairness are fundamental elements of any defensible moral perspective. This latter claim is, of course, controversial, but I believe it can be supported by arguments drawn from Kant, Mill and a number of contemporary philosophers.

page 365 note 2 Cf. II Samuel 6: I–II, I Chronicles 13: 1–14.

page 366 note 1 Hartshorne, Charles, op. cit., p. 3.Google Scholar Psalm 90, verse 2.

page 368 note 1 Cf. Plantinga, Alvin, God and Other Minds (Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 1967), pp. 88–90.Google Scholar In this passage, Plantinga quotes a paragraph from Malcolm in which this view is advanced and expresses his own approval of it.