Modern man's worship

the long version

I have had two interests in mind in writing this book: one has been to bring into focus some of the significant developments within recent years that have contributed to the new interest in worship; the other has been to formulate what seems to me to be the distinctive basis of the religious response, and to give expression to certain convictions concerning religious living which have been gradually taking form. It is my firm belief that if man is to fulfill his greater possibilities, he must be more than moral; he must become good in the profoundly aesthetic and religious sense. This greater goodness is not attainable on the purely social or practical level. It is an achievement of personal adaptation to the deeper realities environing man, requiring sensitivity and appreciation. It can be attained only through cultivation of those capacities in man which respond to beauty and truth. Consequently, to become good in the greater sense, man must take to the arts, the greatest of which is worship. This conception of worship as an art forms the fundamental theme in this book. The reader who is interested only in the philosophy of worship developed here will pass over Part One, which is chiefly a survey of present trends in liturgy and public worship, and turn directly to Parts Two and Three. - Preface.