The Twentieth Century Encyclopedia of Catholicism The Worship of God
Type
Book
Authors
Category
Publication Year
1963
Publisher
Volume
16
Pages
142
Tags
Description
How can man know God?
By worship and worship alone, writes the author of this volume. That is why God attaches such importance in His training of mankind to the revelation of His mystery and to the first commandment which enjoins worship.
"We must never forget that when dealing with realities above us and beyond us, we can never know them as they really are unless we love them," writes MD Philippe. "Only a loving knowledge allows us to approach them sympathetically and understand them as they are. Otherwise, we are always likely to underrate them, diminishing them to fit our own stature. Hence we can know God perfectly only through worship."
The author refutes the "new religion" which proclaims that "God is dead, men have slain God, they must now take the place of God, they must shake off the tyrannical slavery of religion, which makes them acknowledge themselves as creatures of God." He holds that it is the Christian's duty now, more than ever, in the name of all humanity, to worship God so that he will come to realize his personal relation with his Creator and Father. The act of worship is not to be abolished to make way for a mere service of mankind, "but God makes use of a worship which is silent, hidden and spiritual, to allow men to love one another more, to unite them in the bonds of a closer love . . . a loving service which religion ordains . . . in the new humanity, purchased with Christ's blood."
To demonstrate worship as a means to knowledge of God's mystery, the author goes back to the great acts of worship and sacrifice described in the Old Testament. He ends his book with the supreme sacrifice of Christ on the Cross as the unfolding of the mystery of the justice and love of the Father pointing to the reconciliation in God of justice and mercy.
"The worship of Christ crucified is indeed, to the believer, the wisdom of God. It alone caries to their fulfillment the different acts of worship of the Old Testament; it alone leads us directly to the Kingdom of God, to the contemplation of His mystery and His attributes."
The author, MD Philippe, a Dominican, professor of philosophy and theology at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, since 1945, was born in Cysoing (Nord) France, in 1912. He studied at the Jesuit College of St. Joseph, at Lille; his philosophical and theological studies were with the Dominicans at Saulchoir and at the Hautes Etudes at Paris. He was ordained a Dominican priest in 1936 and received his doctorate in theology in 1942. He is the authro of several books including the most recently Theologie Spirituelle, Mystere de Marie, Croissance de la Vie Divine, and earlier, Initiation a la Philosophie d'Aristote, and Le Mystere de l'Amitie Divine.
This is Volume 16 under section II, The Basic Truths.
Translated by Dom Mark Pontifex.
Taken from the inside flaps.
By worship and worship alone, writes the author of this volume. That is why God attaches such importance in His training of mankind to the revelation of His mystery and to the first commandment which enjoins worship.
"We must never forget that when dealing with realities above us and beyond us, we can never know them as they really are unless we love them," writes MD Philippe. "Only a loving knowledge allows us to approach them sympathetically and understand them as they are. Otherwise, we are always likely to underrate them, diminishing them to fit our own stature. Hence we can know God perfectly only through worship."
The author refutes the "new religion" which proclaims that "God is dead, men have slain God, they must now take the place of God, they must shake off the tyrannical slavery of religion, which makes them acknowledge themselves as creatures of God." He holds that it is the Christian's duty now, more than ever, in the name of all humanity, to worship God so that he will come to realize his personal relation with his Creator and Father. The act of worship is not to be abolished to make way for a mere service of mankind, "but God makes use of a worship which is silent, hidden and spiritual, to allow men to love one another more, to unite them in the bonds of a closer love . . . a loving service which religion ordains . . . in the new humanity, purchased with Christ's blood."
To demonstrate worship as a means to knowledge of God's mystery, the author goes back to the great acts of worship and sacrifice described in the Old Testament. He ends his book with the supreme sacrifice of Christ on the Cross as the unfolding of the mystery of the justice and love of the Father pointing to the reconciliation in God of justice and mercy.
"The worship of Christ crucified is indeed, to the believer, the wisdom of God. It alone caries to their fulfillment the different acts of worship of the Old Testament; it alone leads us directly to the Kingdom of God, to the contemplation of His mystery and His attributes."
The author, MD Philippe, a Dominican, professor of philosophy and theology at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, since 1945, was born in Cysoing (Nord) France, in 1912. He studied at the Jesuit College of St. Joseph, at Lille; his philosophical and theological studies were with the Dominicans at Saulchoir and at the Hautes Etudes at Paris. He was ordained a Dominican priest in 1936 and received his doctorate in theology in 1942. He is the authro of several books including the most recently Theologie Spirituelle, Mystere de Marie, Croissance de la Vie Divine, and earlier, Initiation a la Philosophie d'Aristote, and Le Mystere de l'Amitie Divine.
This is Volume 16 under section II, The Basic Truths.
Translated by Dom Mark Pontifex.
Taken from the inside flaps.
Number of Copies
1
