Worship by Evelyn Underhill

Worship Reviews

• 
  Jesse

  I think this is one of the most important books I've ever read, by one of the most important (and underrated) thinkers about the Christian faith. She has the most extensive experience, and understanding, of the global Church's acts of worship, and is both incredibly charitable in drawing out their strengths, while also kindly reflecting on what they lack.
  
  A MUST READ for all ministers of worship, in whatever tradition of the Christian Church.
  
  note: it took me forever to read, because it is so deep and profound. But it's the best two quid I ever spent, from the bargain shelf at Durham Cathedral's bookshop.
• 
  Jeff

  Originally published in 1936, I have to say that this book is pretty hard to read. Hard in the sense of digesting it, taking it in. It is dense. There are paragraphs that are longer than a single page, and the print is not large.
  
  For that reason, I will definitely be reading this book again, much more slowly, maybe even a page at a time. I pushed on through it, for this reading, and, even though I don't feel that I comprehended even half of it, I got some positive things from it.
  
  There are two parts to the book. Part I is a general discussion of the nature and parts of worship, as well as some principles of worship, both corporate and individual, as the author believes both to be important.
  
  In part II, she discusses aspects of different organizations/denominations, in regard to worship. Jewish Worship, Catholic worship, reformed worship, free worship, and Anglican worship.
  
  To her credit, she finds redeeming qualities in each of the organizations that she talks about.
  
  Some takeaways for me:
  P. 62, "To worship well is to live well."
  There is also the constant idea of how "Other" the object of our worship is. "We in our worshipping action are compelled to move within the devotional sphere, with all its symbolic furniture, its archaic survivals, its pitfalls, its risks of sentimentalism, hard-suggestion, and disguised self-regard. But the mighty Object of our worship stands beyond and over against all this in His utter freedom and distinctness. 'Can' and 'cannot,' 'is' and 'is not' must not be predicated of Him, without a virtual remembrance that these words merely refer to our limited experience and not to God as He is in Himself." (P. 5) This particular quote almost sums up the book for me.
  
  And then, on the first page of the text, "Worship, in all its grades and kinds, is the response of the creature to the Eternal." (P. 3)
  
  The depth of this book is both stunning and stirring, hence the definitive need to read it multiple times. I will likely begin to go through it slowly, beginning next year (which is just under two weeks away), perhaps even as slowly as a page a day. Whatever it takes to fully digest this wonderful treatise on the thing that should occupy most of the believer's life.
• 
  Kathleen Dixon

  I've listed this in my "Can't Get Hold Of" shelf, but I did see a preview copy on Questia. It allows an interested person to read the first page of each chapter which I guess is very useful for making a decision on whether to buy or not. In my case, I haven't been able to find a copy that's within my price range, so I won't be purchasing one in the near future. I'm pretty sure from what I read, though, that I'd like to have a copy, because this author is viewing worship not from a Christian fundamentalist viewpoint, but from a mystical spirituality that views it as an act of response to the Eternal. I like that.
• 
  Aaron Cliff

  It's Evelyn Underhill. It's brilliant.
• 
  Bob Toohey

  A spirit-filled survey of the way humans have evolved in their desire to express the inexpressible to the unknown, and ineffable. With reverence for every strain of spiritual and religious attempts to enter a relationship with their creator, from ancient Judaism to the many varied strains of Christian worship, Ms Underhill strikes at the source of our need to worship--wonder and gratitude.
• 
  Hong. Sunghyo

  free church worship