WORSHIP

broadly defined, the response to the appearance of that which is accepted as the holythat is, to a sacred, transcendent power or being. Characteristic modes of response to the holy include cultic acts of all kinds: ritual drama, prayers of many sorts, dancing, ecstatic speech, veneration of various persons and objects, sermons, silent meditation, and sacred music and song. Also included in worship are acts of private response: spoken or unspoken prayers, silence, the assumption of particular postures, ritual acts and gestures, and individual acts of veneration of persons or objects. Additional reading Mircea Eliade, Trait d'histoire des religions (1949; Eng. trans., Patterns in Comparative Religion, 1958), is a standard work with much information on worship. James G. Frazer, The Worship of Nature (1926), is a classic work but is now out of date. Walter Harrelson, From Fertility Cult to Worship (1969); and F.H. Hilliard, How Men Worship (1965), are popular, brief treatments of worship in the major religions. John S. Mbiti, Concepts of God in Africa (1970), has valuable source materials but is difficult to use because of the variety of materials placed together. Geoffrey Parrinder, Worship in the World's Religions (1961), is a popular work, accurate and helpful, but brief. H.H. Rowley, Worship in Ancient Israel (1967), is a standard and comprehensive work. Evelyn Underhill, Worship (1936), is a standard work, still valuable, but now out of date. Geoffrey Wainwright, Doxology: The Praise of God in Worship, Doctrine and Life (1980), argues that all Christian themes come to a focus in worship.