Act of Worship

An Act of Worship is a personal act that idolizes an entity (a worshiped entity).

• AKA: Worship, Devotional Act, Act of Veneration.
• Context:
  • It can typically direct Devotion toward a deity, spiritual principle, or secular ideal.
  • It can typically express Ultimate Concern through conscious dedication or unconscious orientation.
  • It can typically attribute Supreme Value to its worshiped entity.
  • It can typically shape Personal Identity through meaning attribution.
  • It can typically manifest Religious Devotion or secular devotion.
  • ...
  • It can often involve Ritual Behavior within religious contexts.
  • It can often occur through Default Mental Settings in secular contexts.
  • It can often create Psychological Dependence on the worshiped entity.
  • It can often determine Life Priority and value hierarchy.
  • ...
  • It can range from being a Conscious Act of Worship to being an Unconscious Act of Worship, depending on its awareness level.
  • It can range from being a Religious Act of Worship to being a Secular Act of Worship, depending on its worship object.
  • It can range from being an Individual Act of Worship to being a Collective Act of Worship, depending on its participation mode.
  • ...
  • It can be performed in Sacred Spaces for religious worship.
  • It can be enacted through Daily Choices for secular worship.
  • It can be expressed via Ritual Practices for formal devotion.
  • It can be manifested through Life Patterns for unconscious worship.
  • It can be directed toward Material Objects for worldly worship.
  • ...
• Example(s):
  • Religious Worship Acts, such as:
    • Prayer directed toward deity.
    • Ritual Observance within faith tradition.
    • Pilgrimage to sacred site.
    • Meditation Practice for spiritual connection.
  • Secular Worship Acts (per David Foster Wallace), such as:
    • Money Worship, leading to perpetual insufficiency feeling.
    • Beauty Worship, resulting in aging anxiety.
    • Power Worship, creating fear-driven behavior.
    • Intellect Worship, producing fraud syndrome.
  • Formal Worship Acts, such as:
    • Liturgical Service in organized religion.
    • Temple Ritual in ancient tradition.
    • Congregational Prayer in faith community.
  • Informal Worship Acts, such as:
    • Personal Devotion in private setting.
    • Nature Reverence in outdoor environment.
    • Ancestor Veneration in family context.
  • Unconscious Worship Acts, such as:
    • Consumer Behavior idolizing material possessions.
    • Celebrity Obsession venerating public figures.
    • Success Pursuit worshiping achievement metrics.
  • ...
• Counter-Example(s):
  • Mere Admiration, which appreciates without idolization.
  • Casual Interest, which engages without ultimate concern.
  • Academic Study of Religion, which analyzes without personal devotion.
  • Cultural Participation, which observes ritual form without worship intent.
• See: Ideology, Deity, Religion, Devotion, Social Ideology, Evil Label, Adoration, Ritual, Secular Mindset.

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References

2015

• (Wikipedia, 2015) ⇒ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/worship Retrieved:2015-5-17.
  • Worship is an act of religious devotion usually directed towards a deity. An act of worship may be performed individually, in an informal or formal group, or by a designated leader.

    Worship asserts the reality of its object and defines its meaning by reference to it.

2005

• (Wallace, 2005) ⇒ David Foster Wallace. (2005). “Commencement Speech to Kenyon College Class of 2005."
  • QUOTE: … You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn't. You get to decide what to worship.

    Because here's something else that's weird but true: in the day-to day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship -- be it JC or Allah, be it YHWH or the Wiccan Mother Goddess, or the Four Noble Truths, or some inviolable set of ethical principles -- is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It's the truth. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you. On one level, we all know this stuff already. It's been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, epigrams, parables; the skeleton of every great story. The whole trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness. Worship power, you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear.

     Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. But the insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they're evil or sinful, it's that they're unconscious. They are default settings.

    They're the kind of worship you just gradually slip into, day after day, getting more and more selective about what you see and how you measure value without ever being fully aware that that's what you're doing. And the so-called real world will not discourage you from operating on your default settings, because the so-called real world of men and money and power hums merrily along in a pool of fear and anger and frustration and craving and worship of self.

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[[Category:Religious Activity]