The Moral Significance Of Worship

Though we commonly think of worship as being for God's benefit, humans are also uplifted through the action of corporate worship. In this article, written from a sociological position, the author explains that the regularity of worship serves to maintain the individual in a continual state of moral tension. In worship the filter through which one views the world is regularly challenged, amended, and revitalized. Worship is a subject which religious educators often ignore. Perhaps the reason for this is that worship seems disconnected from the realm of moral experience. Indeed, such works as Peter Berger's early book, The Noise of Solemn Assemblies, reflects this sense of the hiatus separating religious rite and ritual from everyday life. In the pages which follow, however, I wish to argue that in spite of a viable critique that may be issued against the linkage between worship and moral experience, there is an important case to be made that religious educators should not ignore the v…