Book contents
- The Philosophy of Worship
- The Philosophy of Worship
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Part I Two Introductions
- Part II What Is Worship?
- Part III Normative Aspects
- Part IV Forms and Functions of Worship
- 13 Liturgical Philosophy of Religion
- 14 Maimonides on Worship, True and False
- 15 The Individual’s Relationship with God
- 16 The Metaphysics of Divine Presence and the Appropriateness of Worship
- Index
- References
16 - The Metaphysics of Divine Presence and the Appropriateness of Worship
from Part IV - Forms and Functions of Worship
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 January 2025
Book contents
- The Philosophy of Worship
- The Philosophy of Worship
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Part I Two Introductions
- Part II What Is Worship?
- Part III Normative Aspects
- Part IV Forms and Functions of Worship
- 13 Liturgical Philosophy of Religion
- 14 Maimonides on Worship, True and False
- 15 The Individual’s Relationship with God
- 16 The Metaphysics of Divine Presence and the Appropriateness of Worship
- Index
- References
Summary
Acts of worship typically involve expressions of fealty: One takes off one’s shoes, bows low, or falls on one’s face. Experiences that naturally prompt such expressions – the sense that one is in the presence of God in an unusual and profound way – raise interesting metaphysical questions about divine presence and absence. Talk of special divine presence poses serious puzzles. In the Jewish scriptures – and in the writings and words of those who treat these scriptures with reverence, whatever their religion – there is much talk of God’s presence and of God’s absence. And yet, God is also affirmed to be everywhere. How can God be everywhere, but also absent from some places, and especially present in others? Metaphysics is a likely place to look for a range of possible answers to this simple but puzzling question.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Philosophy of WorshipDivine and Human Aspects, pp. 296 - 326Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
References
Alexander, H. B. (1921). Worship (Primitive), in: Hastings, J. (Ed.), Encyclopaedia of religion and ethics. T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, pp. 752–757.Google Scholar
Allen, W. (2021). Thinking about good and evil: Jewish views from antiquity to modernity. The Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arcadi, J. M. (2017). Divine presence as divine action: applying Old Testament theophanies to contemporary worship. Topoi 36, 631–639.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arntzenius, F. (2004). Gunk, topology and measure, in: Zimmerman, D. (Ed.), Oxford studies in metaphysics: volume 4. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 225–247.Google Scholar
Berkovits, E. (1975). Major themes in modern philosophies of Judaism. Ktav Pub. House, New York.Google Scholar
Choo, F. (2020). Can a worship-worthy agent command others to worship it? Religious Studies 58, 79–95. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0034412520000177CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, J. J. (2011). How personal agents are located in space: implications for worship, Eucharist, and union with Christ. Philosophia Christi 13, 437–444. https://doi.org/10.5840/pc201113237CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dees, M. (forthcoming). Spacetime functionalism. Dialectica.Google Scholar
Edwards, J. (1808). The doctrine of original sin defended: evidences of its truth produced, and arguments to the contrary answered. Containing in particular, a reply to the objections and arguings of Dr. John Taylor, in his book intitled, “The scripture doctrine of original sin proposed to free and candid examination,” &c. Isaiah Thomas, Jr., England.Google Scholar
Gordon, J. R. (2018). Rethinking divine spatiality: divine omnipresence in philosophical and theological perspective. Heythrop Journal 59, 534–543. https://doi.org/10.1111/heyj.12832CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goris, H. (2009). Divine omnipresence in Thomas Aquinas, in: Goris, H., Rikhof, H., Schoot, H. (Eds.), Divine transcendence and immanence in the work of Thomas Aquinas. Peeters, Leuven, pp. 37–58.Google Scholar
Hazony, D. (2013). The man who saved God from the Holocaust. Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies 31, 54–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoffman, J., Rosenkrantz, G. S. (2002). The divine attributes. Blackwell, Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoover, J. (2022). God spatially above and spatially extended: the rationality of Ibn Taymiyya’s refutation of Faḫr al-Dīn al-Rāzī’s Ašʿarī incorporealism. Arabica 69, 626–674.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hudson, H. (2009). Omnipresence, in: Flint, T. P., Rea, M. C. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of philosophical theology. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 199–216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inman, R. (2017). Omnipresence and the location of the immaterial, in: Kvanvig, J. L. (Ed.), Oxford studies in philosophy of religion: volume 8. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 168–206. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198806967.003.0008Google Scholar
Inman, R. (2021). Retrieving divine immensity and omnipresence, in: Arcadi, J. M., Turner, J. T. Jr. (Eds.), T&T Clark handbook of analytic theology. T. & T. Clark, London, pp. 127–139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Irgas, Y. (2015). Shomer Emunim: extracts translated into English, in: Fraenkel, A. (Ed.), Nefesh HaTzimtzum. Urim, Jerusalem and New York, pp. 228–250.Google Scholar
Jedwab, J. (2016). God’s omnipresence. European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 8, 129–149. https://doi.org/10.24204/ejpr.v8i2.61CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kleinschmidt, S. (2015). Shaping up location: against the Humean argument for the extrinsicality of shape. Philosophical Studies 172, 1973–1983. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098–014-0382-0CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lebens, S. (2020). The principles of Judaism. Oxford University Press, Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luhrmann, T. M. (2012). When God talks back: understanding the American evangelical relationship with God. Vintage Books, New York.Google Scholar
Markosian, N. (2014). A spatial approach to mereology, in: Kleinschmidt, S. (Ed.), Mereology and location. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 69–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDaniel, K. (2007). Extended simples. Philosophical Studies 133, 131–141. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098–006-9010-yCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parsons, J. (2007). Theories of location, in: Zimmerman, D. (Ed.), Oxford studies in metaphysics: volume 3. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 201–232.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pasnau, R. (2011). Metaphysical themes 1274–1671. Oxford University Press, Oxford. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199567911.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plantinga, A. (2004). Supralapsarianism, or “O felix culpa,” in: van Inwagen, P. (Ed.), Christian faith and the problem of evil. Wm. B. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, pp. 1–25.Google Scholar
Pruss, A. R. (2013). Omnipresence, multilocation, the real presence and time travel. Journal of Analytic Theology 1, 60–73. https://doi.org/10.12978/jat.2013-1Google Scholar
Rachels, J. (1971). God and human attitudes. Religious Studies 7, 325–337. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0034412500000391CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skow, B. (2007). Are shapes intrinsic? Philosophical Studies 133, 111–130. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098–006-9009-4CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, S. (2013). Kant’s picture of monads in the Physical Monadology. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, Part A 44, 102–111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2012.12.006CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stump, E. (2010). Wandering in darkness narrative and the problem of suffering. Clarendon Press, Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tracy, T. F. (2008). Theologies of divine action. In Clayton, P. (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of religion and science. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 596–611. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199543656.003.0036Google Scholar
Tworek, W. (2019). Eternity now: Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liady and temporality. State University of New York Press, Albany.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Inwagen, P. (1988). The place of chance in a world sustained by God, in: Morris, T. (Ed.), Divine and Human Action. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, pp. 211–35.Google Scholar
van Inwagen, P. (2024). Improvable creations. TheoLogica 8. https://doi.org/10.14428/thl.v8i2.78723CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watkins, E. (2003). Forces and causes in Kant’s early pre-Critical writings. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, Part A 34, 5–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0039–3681(02)00091-2CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wierenga, E. (2008). Omnipresence, in: Meister, C. and Copan, P. (Eds.), The Routledge companion to philosophy of religion. Routledge, London and New York, pp. 281–295.Google Scholar
Zimmerman, D. (2024). Divine location and the inheritance of spatial structure, in: Marmodoro, A. and Migliorini, D. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of omnipresence. Oxford University Press, New York.Google Scholar