The worship of divine powers serves many important and beneficial roles in human cultures throughout history. While a full discussion of this is beyond the intended scope of this thread, in simple terms let us recognize that paying respect and honor to forces which are regarded as sacred, awesome, and/or greater than oneself can provide an important sense of meaning, purpose, and context in the lives of the worshipers. While not all humans use religious terminology to guide meaning, purpose, and context in life, a majority of them do. I was thinking over this function of religious worship of gods recently and found myself asking an interesting question:
What do the gods worship? Do the objects of our worship in turn worship something that they perceive to be sacred, awesome, and/or greater than themselves? If so, what is it?
This question may make more sense if you consider the divine from a polytheistic perspective - as I was at the time - but I gladly welcome any theological perspectives that wish to contribute to this discussion. What would your deity or deities worship, if anything? For purposes here, let's very loosely define the terms "deity" and "worship" as below:
Deity = something an individual attributes to be sacred, awesome, greater, and/or worthy of worship. This could be anything from honored ancestors to spirits/deities manifest in nature/cities/otherworlds, or the more familiar all-powerful god of classical monotheism.
Worship = paying respect and honor to such a deity.
What do the gods worship? Do the objects of our worship in turn worship something that they perceive to be sacred, awesome, and/or greater than themselves? If so, what is it?
This question may make more sense if you consider the divine from a polytheistic perspective - as I was at the time - but I gladly welcome any theological perspectives that wish to contribute to this discussion. What would your deity or deities worship, if anything? For purposes here, let's very loosely define the terms "deity" and "worship" as below:
Deity = something an individual attributes to be sacred, awesome, greater, and/or worthy of worship. This could be anything from honored ancestors to spirits/deities manifest in nature/cities/otherworlds, or the more familiar all-powerful god of classical monotheism.
Worship = paying respect and honor to such a deity.
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