Reverence (emotion)
Encyclopedia
Reverence [rev-er-uh ns, rev-ruh ns] is defined by Dictionary.com as, "A feeling or attitude of deep respect tinged with awe; veneration.". The word comes from the late 13th century Old French
term reverence which derives from the Latin
"reverentia 'awe, respect,' from revereri 'to revere,' from re- , intensive prefix, + vereri 'stand in awe of, fear,' from PIE *wer- 'to be or become aware of' (cf. O.E. wær 'aware, cautious;' see wary). The verb is first attested c.1300". The word reverence in the modern day is often used in relationship with religion
. This is because religion often stimulates the emotion through recognition of God
, the supernatural
, and the ineffable. Reverence involves a humbling of the self in respectful recognition of something perceived to be greater than the self. Thus religion is commonly a place where reverence is felt.
However, similar to awe
, reverence is an emotion in its own right, and can be felt outside of the realm of religion
. Whereas awe may be characterized as an overwhelming "sensitivity
to greatness," reverence is seen more as "acknowledging a subjective
response to something excellent
in a personal (moral
or spiritual
) way, but qualitatively above oneself" Solomon describes awe as passive, but reverence as active, noting that the feeling
of awe (i.e., becoming awestruck) implies paralysis
, whereas feelings of reverence are associated more with active engagement
and responsibility toward that which one reveres. Nature
, science
, literature
, philosophy
, great philosophers, leaders, artists, art
, music
, wisdom
, and beauty
may each act as the stimulus and focus of reverence.
Pugmire believes that reverence belongs to the range of emotions that can be classified in their devotional or sacred
forms, “Emotions of reverence, solemnity, agape, hope, serenity, and ecstasy”. But this classification of emotions poses an interesting question: can any emotion be purely religious? “A central candidate for a distinctively religious emotion would be reverence”. But it is not entirely distinct from the rest of the emotions that are not related to transcendence or religion. “Reverence is indeed graver, and an attitude in which one is more given over, than its secular approximations in the shape of approval or esteem or respect”. But this does not make it purely religious. In fact, “Kant
was able to claim reverence as our principal moral emotion without invoking any grounding theological basis for this”. “Similarly for its bracing sibling, awe: it figures in our experience of the sublime, of which Kant purports to find an entirely secular account”. To connect the secular and the sacred emotions Pugmire looks at the emotions which can be experienced equally in both contexts. These are, “Love, humility, sorrow, pity, joy, serenity, ecstasy”. Pugmire then suggests that devotional emotion is: “The transfiguring of mundane emotion into what one might call emotion of the last instance, to the reception and expression of which religious imagery is especially well-suited, and not accidentally”. The emotion of the last instance refers to the capacity of the emotional imagination to lose the sense of self and engage in the infinite and the ineffable. Pugmire is suggesting that religion, “Provides a strikingly apt vocabulary for the expression of emotion of the last instance”. Reverence is perhaps the most critical of these “emotions of the last instance” and can be adequately accessed through religious music.
in his book, Reverence: Renewing a Forgotten Virtue, assesses the current understanding of the emotion reverence in the modern era. He assesses that a true understanding of reverence is missing from both modern society and the “modern discussions of the ancient cultures that prized it” (Woodruff, p. 3). Specifically these ancient cultures include Greece
and China
. Woodruff’s best definition of Reverence is, “The well-developed capacity to have the feelings of awe
, respect
, and shame
when these are the right feelings to have” (Woodruff, p. 8). Thus Woodruff’s definition of reverence includes the combination of three other emotions: respect, shame, and awe. “Respect is for other people, shame is over one’s own shortcomings, and awe is usually felt toward something transcendent” (Woodruff, p. 65).
Although Woodruff acknowledges the relationship between reverence and religion he argues that, “Reverence has more to do with politics than with religion” (Woodruff, p. 4). Woodruff in his book is trying to separate the common misunderstanding that reverent emotions can only be related to religion.
Woodruff sees ceremony
and ritual
as key elements in meaningful human life when practiced with reverence. “Without reverence, rituals are empty” (Woodruff, p. 19). Ceremony and ritual are found at home, in meetings, in voting, and in religion and these acts provide the context for feeling reverence. But often these situations are so common the emotion reverence disappears from human consciousness. “Ritual and reverence in common life are so familiar that we scarcely notice them until they are gone” (Woodruff, p. 35). Woodruff argues that, “Reverence, ceremony and respect do not disappear, they cannot disappear from a functioning society” (Woodruff, p. 36). He states that “What we are losing is not reverence, but the idea of reverence” (Woodruff, p. 36). It is his hope that the importance of reverence will be recognized in society again and that this recognition will better humanity. He proposes to “Restore the idea of reverence to its proper place in ethical and political thought” (Woodruff, p. 38).
Woodruff understands true reverence to be for things beyond human control. “The object of reverence is the ideal of unity, because that transcends politics altogether” (Woodruff, p. 28). Thus reverence focuses on an ideal that transcends the scope of humankind. This ideal can vary from God, to unity, to anything else that transcends human capacity. “Reverence sets a higher value on the truth than on any human product that is supposed to have captured the truth” (Woodruff, p. 39). He goes on to say that, “The principal object of reverence is Something that reminds us of human limitations” (Woodruff, p. 65). Reverence therefore is related to truth and the recognition that mankind cannot acquire absolute truth and that human life is finite.
Woodruff describes how reverence is often activated through music
. Woodruff claims that “Reverence cannot be expressed in a creed; its most apt expression is in music” (Woodruff, p. 123). He gives the analogy of a quartet of varying skill levels playing a piece by Mozart. They embody reverence because: “(1) The musicians have been engaged, more or less harmoniously, on a project as a group; (2) their project involved ceremony; (3) they have felt themselves largely without ego; (4) they have felt themselves to be part of a clearly defined hierarchy that was painless for all of them; and (5) they have achieved in the end a shared feeling of inarticulate awe” (Woodruff, p. 48-49). This coincides with his belief that “Art speaks the language of reverence better than philosophy does, and speak(s) it to the reverence that is already in the town” (Woodruff, p. 25). By "in the town" Woodruff is referring to the recognition of reverence that is already present.
“In the presence of death we expect ourselves and others to be reverent; the expectation feels natural, and yet the ceremonies through which we express reverence at such times take very different forms in different cultures” (Woodruff, p. 50). In his conversation on funerals as times of reverence he makes the point that reverence transcends faith and that it is constant throughout human history even when religions change (Woodruff, p. 54.). “You need not believe in God to be reverent, but to develop an occasion for reverence you must share a culture with others, and this must support a degree of ceremony” (Woodruff, p. 50). Reverence is not dependent on religion, but true religious experience is dependent on the emotion reverence.
Paul Woodruff builds his case on reverence by analyzing the historical significance of reverence as a virtue. In Ancient Greek and Chinese civilizations, “Both cultures celebrate reverence in the belief that it is reverence above all that maintains social order and harmony” (Woodruff, p. 60). For the Greeks reverence was rooted in mythology
. “Protagoras
invented a myth in which the highest god gave reverence and justice to human beings as means for the survival of society” (Woodruff, p. 57). This foundation was critical because “Emotions affect action; they are motivators” (Woodruff, p. 62). Reverence in classical Greek society then motivated the populous to act rightly and be humble to improve society. “We feel awe for what we believe is above us all as human beings, and this feeling helps us to avoid treating other human beings with contempt” (Woodruff, p. 63).
Woodruff uses the Greek heroes and Athenian tragedies to illustrate his conception of reverence. He uses the story of Croesus
by Herodotus
to help shape an understanding of reverence that includes respect for those lower in hierarchical status. “A reverent soul listens to other people even when they are inferior; that is a large part of remembering that you are human together with them” (Woodruff, p. 83). He also illustrates reverence with the Iliad
, Antigone
, Pentheus
, Pericles
, Socrates
, Plato
, Oedipus
, and the Odyssey
. Through these figures he shows that reverence was quite significant in Greek culture. In Oedipus, Woodruff asserts that, “Hubris
is best understood simply as the opposite of reverence, in action or attitude” (Woodruff, p. 91).
After building his case with a look at classical Greek culture he looks at classical Chinese Confucian society. “Filial piety
expresses reverence within the family” (Woodruff, p. 103). The most important part of his connection between reverence and the Chinese is his understanding of li
. “Li refers also to civility or reverence” (Woodruff, p. 105). One interesting connection between Greek and Chinese societies is that, “Both conceptions of reverence blossom with the passing away of polytheism and the rise of agnosticism. Reverence survives and flourishes in these circumstances because it is something that human beings need in order to face the most obvious, common, and inevitable facts of human life – family
, hierarchy
, and death
” (Woodruff, p. 110). Most of his information on reverence in Chinese culture derives from the Analects. Woodruff believes that a break in tradition is not necessarily irreverent and that relativism
is flawed. People should be critical of all cultures and forms of reverence (Woodruff, p. 155).
in his great work, Religions, Values, and Peak-Experiences, deals extensively with reverence. Reverence is critical in having a peak-experience. He makes the case that peak-experiences happen for the religious and non-religious alike and that they are critical to having a fulfilling life. For Maslow the distinction between the secular and the profane is unfortunate. Maslow points out that, “Religionizing only one part of life secularizes the rest of it”. Maslow contends that religion seeks to make the emotion reverence possible through ritual, but that the familiarity of it often negates any reverent feelings. In defining peak-experiences Maslow states that, “Such emotions as wonder, awe, reverence, humility, surrender, and even worship before the greatness of the experience are often reported”. Reverence therefore is a key ingredient in the peak-experiences that make life worth living and make mankind feel fully human.
, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and holder of four PhD degrees, sought for years for the basis of a new worldview. One day, while in a boat on the river in Gabon, it struck him with great force and clarity: "Reverence for life" (In German: Ehrfurcht vor dem Leben).
Haidt (2000) notes that since Maslow (1964) studied the changes that actualizing experiences can bring about in people's identities and in their moral
and spiritual
lives, little empirical research
has been done to examine the peak experiences and moral transformations associated with positive moral emotions such as gratitude
, elevation
, awe
, admiration, and reverence. Haidt’s own work in these areas suggests that potent feelings of reverence may be associated with the peak experiences accompanying moral transformations, where, “Powerful moments of elevation sometimes seem to push a mental ‘reset button,’ wiping out feelings of cynicism
and replacing them with feelings of hope
, love
, and optimism
, and a sense of moral inspiration.”
. Moreover, reverence for artwork that instantiates these central aspects of culture
can provide a means of buffering the existential anxiety
that follows from reminders of the inevitability of human mortality. Across history, cultures have revered art as a “forum for representing in an enduring medium those individuals who are held up as embodiments of virtue
and lasting significance.”
Thomas and Schlutsmeyer make the case for reverence in therapy: “In EPCP, reverence, as we stated earlier, is a goal of therapy, a sign of optimal functioning”. The therapist must revere the patient and the patient must learn to revere others and themselves in order for the therapy to be effective.
"Let parents bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence." Plato
“We know reverence first hand wherever we are truly at home.” Paul Woodruff
"Reverence does not die with mortals, nor does it perish whether they live or die." Sophocles
“He that will have his son have a respect for him and his orders must have a great reverence for his son.” John Locke
"I love and reverence the Word, the bearer of the spirit, the tool and gleaming ploughshare of progress." Thomas Mann
"Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence." Henry David Thoreau
"By having a reverence for life, we enter into a spiritual relation with the world By practicing reverence for life we become good, deep, and alive." Albert Schweitzer
"Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world." John Milton
"Who is to decide what ought to command my reverence--my neighbor or I? . . You can't have reverence for a thing that doesn't command it. If you could do that, you could digest what you haven't eaten, and do other miracles and get a reputation." Mark Twain
, a Biography
"Fullness of knowledge always means some understanding of the depths of our ignorance; and that is always conducive to humility and reverence." Robert Millikan
"The roots, or common principles of human morality are to be found in moral feelings such as commiseration, shame, respect, and reverence." Wing-Tsit Chan
“Juvenal
said that the greatest reverence is due the young (14.47), deliberately reversing the tradition that directs reverence ever upward.” Paul Woodruff
“Reverence for truth leads to humility in the face of the awesome task of getting something right” Paul Woodruff
“Reverence in the classroom calls for a sense of awe in the face of the truth and a recognition by teachers and students of their places in the order of learning.” Paul Woodruff
" by Tennyson
. Paul Woodruff believes that Tennyson
, “gave us the finest expression of reverence that we have in the English language, “In Memoriam”.
Deference
Awe
Emotion
Old French
Old French was the Romance dialect continuum spoken in territories that span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from the 9th century to the 14th century...
term reverence which derives from the Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
"reverentia 'awe, respect,' from revereri 'to revere,' from re- , intensive prefix, + vereri 'stand in awe of, fear,' from PIE *wer- 'to be or become aware of' (cf. O.E. wær 'aware, cautious;' see wary). The verb is first attested c.1300". The word reverence in the modern day is often used in relationship with religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
. This is because religion often stimulates the emotion through recognition of God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
, the supernatural
Supernatural
The supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...
, and the ineffable. Reverence involves a humbling of the self in respectful recognition of something perceived to be greater than the self. Thus religion is commonly a place where reverence is felt.
However, similar to awe
Awe
Awe is an emotion comparable to wonder but less joyous, and more fearful or respectful. Awe is defined in Robert Plutchik's Wheel of emotions as a combination of surprise and fear...
, reverence is an emotion in its own right, and can be felt outside of the realm of religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
. Whereas awe may be characterized as an overwhelming "sensitivity
Sensitivity (human)
The sensitivity or insensitivity of a human, often considered with regard to a particular kind of stimulus, is the strength of the feeling it results in, in comparison with the strength of the stimulus...
to greatness," reverence is seen more as "acknowledging a subjective
Subjectivity
Subjectivity refers to the subject and his or her perspective, feelings, beliefs, and desires. In philosophy, the term is usually contrasted with objectivity.-Qualia:...
response to something excellent
Excellence
Excellence is a talent or quality which is unusually good and so surpasses ordinary standards. It is also an aimed for standard of performance.-History:...
in a personal (moral
Moral
A moral is a message conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim...
or spiritual
Spirituality
Spirituality can refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.” Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop...
) way, but qualitatively above oneself" Solomon describes awe as passive, but reverence as active, noting that the feeling
Feeling
Feeling is the nominalization of the verb to feel. The word was first used in the English language to describe the physical sensation of touch through either experience or perception. The word is also used to describe experiences, other than the physical sensation of touch, such as "a feeling of...
of awe (i.e., becoming awestruck) implies paralysis
Paralysis
Paralysis is loss of muscle function for one or more muscles. Paralysis can be accompanied by a loss of feeling in the affected area if there is sensory damage as well as motor. A study conducted by the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, suggests that about 1 in 50 people have been diagnosed...
, whereas feelings of reverence are associated more with active engagement
Engagement
An engagement or betrothal is a promise to marry, and also the period of time between proposal and marriage which may be lengthy or trivial. During this period, a couple is said to be betrothed, affianced, engaged to be married, or simply engaged...
and responsibility toward that which one reveres. Nature
Nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general...
, science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
, literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
, philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
, great philosophers, leaders, artists, art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
, music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
, wisdom
Wisdom
Wisdom is a deep understanding and realization of people, things, events or situations, resulting in the ability to apply perceptions, judgements and actions in keeping with this understanding. It often requires control of one's emotional reactions so that universal principles, reason and...
, and beauty
Beauty
Beauty is a characteristic of a person, animal, place, object, or idea that provides a perceptual experience of pleasure, meaning, or satisfaction. Beauty is studied as part of aesthetics, sociology, social psychology, and culture...
may each act as the stimulus and focus of reverence.
Religion and Music
David Pugmire’s article, “The Secular Reception of Religious Music” explores the unique experience of reverence through music. In particular he looks at how religious music has the capacity to instill emotions of reverence, awe, wonder, and veneration in secular people who lack the context to fully understand the transcendent through religion. “Sacred music seems to have a surprising power over unbelievers not just to quicken or delight them as other music does, but also to ply them, as little else can, with what might be called devotional feelings”. Even with this though, Pugmire argues that the secularist cannot fully comprehend the nature of sacred art including sacred music. “Its undoubted expressiveness can lead him at most to accesses of feeling, not to emotion in the fullest sense, i.e., emotion with appropriate objects sustained by appropriate judgments”.Pugmire believes that reverence belongs to the range of emotions that can be classified in their devotional or sacred
Sacred
Holiness, or sanctity, is in general the state of being holy or sacred...
forms, “Emotions of reverence, solemnity, agape, hope, serenity, and ecstasy”. But this classification of emotions poses an interesting question: can any emotion be purely religious? “A central candidate for a distinctively religious emotion would be reverence”. But it is not entirely distinct from the rest of the emotions that are not related to transcendence or religion. “Reverence is indeed graver, and an attitude in which one is more given over, than its secular approximations in the shape of approval or esteem or respect”. But this does not make it purely religious. In fact, “Kant
KANT
KANT is a computer algebra system for mathematicians interested in algebraic number theory, performing sophisticated computations in algebraic number fields, in global function fields, and in local fields. KASH is the associated command line interface...
was able to claim reverence as our principal moral emotion without invoking any grounding theological basis for this”. “Similarly for its bracing sibling, awe: it figures in our experience of the sublime, of which Kant purports to find an entirely secular account”. To connect the secular and the sacred emotions Pugmire looks at the emotions which can be experienced equally in both contexts. These are, “Love, humility, sorrow, pity, joy, serenity, ecstasy”. Pugmire then suggests that devotional emotion is: “The transfiguring of mundane emotion into what one might call emotion of the last instance, to the reception and expression of which religious imagery is especially well-suited, and not accidentally”. The emotion of the last instance refers to the capacity of the emotional imagination to lose the sense of self and engage in the infinite and the ineffable. Pugmire is suggesting that religion, “Provides a strikingly apt vocabulary for the expression of emotion of the last instance”. Reverence is perhaps the most critical of these “emotions of the last instance” and can be adequately accessed through religious music.
Paul Woodruff
Paul WoodruffPaul Woodruff
Paul Woodruff is a classicist, professor of philosophy, and dean at the University of Texas at Austin, where he once chaired the department of philosophy and has more recently held the Hayden Head Regents Chair as director of Plan II Honors program, which he resigned in 2006 after 15 years of...
in his book, Reverence: Renewing a Forgotten Virtue, assesses the current understanding of the emotion reverence in the modern era. He assesses that a true understanding of reverence is missing from both modern society and the “modern discussions of the ancient cultures that prized it” (Woodruff, p. 3). Specifically these ancient cultures include Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
and China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. Woodruff’s best definition of Reverence is, “The well-developed capacity to have the feelings of awe
Awe
Awe is an emotion comparable to wonder but less joyous, and more fearful or respectful. Awe is defined in Robert Plutchik's Wheel of emotions as a combination of surprise and fear...
, respect
Respect
Respect denotes both a positive feeling of esteem for a person or other entity , and also specific actions and conduct representative of that esteem. Respect can be a specific feeling of regard for the actual qualities of the one respected...
, and shame
Shame
Shame is, variously, an affect, emotion, cognition, state, or condition. The roots of the word shame are thought to derive from an older word meaning to cover; as such, covering oneself, literally or figuratively, is a natural expression of shame....
when these are the right feelings to have” (Woodruff, p. 8). Thus Woodruff’s definition of reverence includes the combination of three other emotions: respect, shame, and awe. “Respect is for other people, shame is over one’s own shortcomings, and awe is usually felt toward something transcendent” (Woodruff, p. 65).
Although Woodruff acknowledges the relationship between reverence and religion he argues that, “Reverence has more to do with politics than with religion” (Woodruff, p. 4). Woodruff in his book is trying to separate the common misunderstanding that reverent emotions can only be related to religion.
Woodruff sees ceremony
Ceremony
A ceremony is an event of ritual significance, performed on a special occasion. The word may be of Etruscan origin.-Ceremonial occasions:A ceremony may mark a rite of passage in a human life, marking the significance of, for example:* birth...
and ritual
Ritual
A ritual is a set of actions, performed mainly for their symbolic value. It may be prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community. The term usually excludes actions which are arbitrarily chosen by the performers....
as key elements in meaningful human life when practiced with reverence. “Without reverence, rituals are empty” (Woodruff, p. 19). Ceremony and ritual are found at home, in meetings, in voting, and in religion and these acts provide the context for feeling reverence. But often these situations are so common the emotion reverence disappears from human consciousness. “Ritual and reverence in common life are so familiar that we scarcely notice them until they are gone” (Woodruff, p. 35). Woodruff argues that, “Reverence, ceremony and respect do not disappear, they cannot disappear from a functioning society” (Woodruff, p. 36). He states that “What we are losing is not reverence, but the idea of reverence” (Woodruff, p. 36). It is his hope that the importance of reverence will be recognized in society again and that this recognition will better humanity. He proposes to “Restore the idea of reverence to its proper place in ethical and political thought” (Woodruff, p. 38).
Woodruff understands true reverence to be for things beyond human control. “The object of reverence is the ideal of unity, because that transcends politics altogether” (Woodruff, p. 28). Thus reverence focuses on an ideal that transcends the scope of humankind. This ideal can vary from God, to unity, to anything else that transcends human capacity. “Reverence sets a higher value on the truth than on any human product that is supposed to have captured the truth” (Woodruff, p. 39). He goes on to say that, “The principal object of reverence is Something that reminds us of human limitations” (Woodruff, p. 65). Reverence therefore is related to truth and the recognition that mankind cannot acquire absolute truth and that human life is finite.
Woodruff describes how reverence is often activated through music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
. Woodruff claims that “Reverence cannot be expressed in a creed; its most apt expression is in music” (Woodruff, p. 123). He gives the analogy of a quartet of varying skill levels playing a piece by Mozart. They embody reverence because: “(1) The musicians have been engaged, more or less harmoniously, on a project as a group; (2) their project involved ceremony; (3) they have felt themselves largely without ego; (4) they have felt themselves to be part of a clearly defined hierarchy that was painless for all of them; and (5) they have achieved in the end a shared feeling of inarticulate awe” (Woodruff, p. 48-49). This coincides with his belief that “Art speaks the language of reverence better than philosophy does, and speak(s) it to the reverence that is already in the town” (Woodruff, p. 25). By "in the town" Woodruff is referring to the recognition of reverence that is already present.
“In the presence of death we expect ourselves and others to be reverent; the expectation feels natural, and yet the ceremonies through which we express reverence at such times take very different forms in different cultures” (Woodruff, p. 50). In his conversation on funerals as times of reverence he makes the point that reverence transcends faith and that it is constant throughout human history even when religions change (Woodruff, p. 54.). “You need not believe in God to be reverent, but to develop an occasion for reverence you must share a culture with others, and this must support a degree of ceremony” (Woodruff, p. 50). Reverence is not dependent on religion, but true religious experience is dependent on the emotion reverence.
Paul Woodruff builds his case on reverence by analyzing the historical significance of reverence as a virtue. In Ancient Greek and Chinese civilizations, “Both cultures celebrate reverence in the belief that it is reverence above all that maintains social order and harmony” (Woodruff, p. 60). For the Greeks reverence was rooted in mythology
Mythology
The term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. As examples, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece...
. “Protagoras
Protagoras
Protagoras was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher and is numbered as one of the sophists by Plato. In his dialogue Protagoras, Plato credits him with having invented the role of the professional sophist or teacher of virtue...
invented a myth in which the highest god gave reverence and justice to human beings as means for the survival of society” (Woodruff, p. 57). This foundation was critical because “Emotions affect action; they are motivators” (Woodruff, p. 62). Reverence in classical Greek society then motivated the populous to act rightly and be humble to improve society. “We feel awe for what we believe is above us all as human beings, and this feeling helps us to avoid treating other human beings with contempt” (Woodruff, p. 63).
Woodruff uses the Greek heroes and Athenian tragedies to illustrate his conception of reverence. He uses the story of Croesus
Croesus
Croesus was the king of Lydia from 560 to 547 BC until his defeat by the Persians. The fall of Croesus made a profound impact on the Hellenes, providing a fixed point in their calendar. "By the fifth century at least," J.A.S...
by Herodotus
Herodotus
Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
to help shape an understanding of reverence that includes respect for those lower in hierarchical status. “A reverent soul listens to other people even when they are inferior; that is a large part of remembering that you are human together with them” (Woodruff, p. 83). He also illustrates reverence with the Iliad
Iliad
The Iliad is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles...
, Antigone
Antigone
In Greek mythology, Antigone is the daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta, Oedipus' mother. The name may be taken to mean "unbending", coming from "anti-" and "-gon / -gony" , but has also been suggested to mean "opposed to motherhood", "in place of a mother", or "anti-generative", based from the root...
, Pentheus
Pentheus
In Greek mythology, Pentheus was a king of Thebes, son of the strongest of the Spartes, Echion, and of Agave, daughter of Cadmus, the founder of Thebes, and the goddess Harmonia....
, Pericles
Pericles
Pericles was a prominent and influential statesman, orator, and general of Athens during the city's Golden Age—specifically, the time between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars...
, Socrates
Socrates
Socrates was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of his contemporary ...
, Plato
Plato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
, Oedipus
Oedipus
Oedipus was a mythical Greek king of Thebes. He fulfilled a prophecy that said he would kill his father and marry his mother, and thus brought disaster on his city and family...
, and the Odyssey
Odyssey
The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work ascribed to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the second—the Iliad being the first—extant work of Western literature...
. Through these figures he shows that reverence was quite significant in Greek culture. In Oedipus, Woodruff asserts that, “Hubris
Hubris
Hubris , also hybris, means extreme haughtiness, pride or arrogance. Hubris often indicates a loss of contact with reality and an overestimation of one's own competence or capabilities, especially when the person exhibiting it is in a position of power....
is best understood simply as the opposite of reverence, in action or attitude” (Woodruff, p. 91).
After building his case with a look at classical Greek culture he looks at classical Chinese Confucian society. “Filial piety
Filial piety
In Confucian ideals, filial piety is one of the virtues to be held above all else: a respect for the parents and ancestors. The Confucian classic Xiao Jing or Classic of Xiào, thought to be written around 470 BCE, has historically been the authoritative source on the Confucian tenet of xiào /...
expresses reverence within the family” (Woodruff, p. 103). The most important part of his connection between reverence and the Chinese is his understanding of li
Li (Confucian)
Li is a classical Chinese word which finds its most extensive use in Confucian and post-Confucian Chinese philosophy. Li encompasses not a definitive object but rather a somewhat abstract idea; as such, it is translated in a number of different ways...
. “Li refers also to civility or reverence” (Woodruff, p. 105). One interesting connection between Greek and Chinese societies is that, “Both conceptions of reverence blossom with the passing away of polytheism and the rise of agnosticism. Reverence survives and flourishes in these circumstances because it is something that human beings need in order to face the most obvious, common, and inevitable facts of human life – family
Family
In human context, a family is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, affinity, or co-residence. In most societies it is the principal institution for the socialization of children...
, hierarchy
Hierarchy
A hierarchy is an arrangement of items in which the items are represented as being "above," "below," or "at the same level as" one another...
, and death
Death
Death is the permanent termination of the biological functions that sustain a living organism. Phenomena which commonly bring about death include old age, predation, malnutrition, disease, and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury....
” (Woodruff, p. 110). Most of his information on reverence in Chinese culture derives from the Analects. Woodruff believes that a break in tradition is not necessarily irreverent and that relativism
Relativism
Relativism is the concept that points of view have no absolute truth or validity, having only relative, subjective value according to differences in perception and consideration....
is flawed. People should be critical of all cultures and forms of reverence (Woodruff, p. 155).
Abraham Maslow
Abraham MaslowAbraham Maslow
Abraham Harold Maslow was an American professor of psychology at Brandeis University, Brooklyn College, New School for Social Research and Columbia University who created Maslow's hierarchy of needs...
in his great work, Religions, Values, and Peak-Experiences, deals extensively with reverence. Reverence is critical in having a peak-experience. He makes the case that peak-experiences happen for the religious and non-religious alike and that they are critical to having a fulfilling life. For Maslow the distinction between the secular and the profane is unfortunate. Maslow points out that, “Religionizing only one part of life secularizes the rest of it”. Maslow contends that religion seeks to make the emotion reverence possible through ritual, but that the familiarity of it often negates any reverent feelings. In defining peak-experiences Maslow states that, “Such emotions as wonder, awe, reverence, humility, surrender, and even worship before the greatness of the experience are often reported”. Reverence therefore is a key ingredient in the peak-experiences that make life worth living and make mankind feel fully human.
Albert Schweitzer
Albert SchweitzerAlbert Schweitzer
Albert Schweitzer OM was a German theologian, organist, philosopher, physician, and medical missionary. He was born in Kaysersberg in the province of Alsace-Lorraine, at that time part of the German Empire...
, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and holder of four PhD degrees, sought for years for the basis of a new worldview. One day, while in a boat on the river in Gabon, it struck him with great force and clarity: "Reverence for life" (In German: Ehrfurcht vor dem Leben).
Reverence and Patient Recovery
Empirical studies on reverence are scarce. However, one intriguing study on reverence is, “Prayer and reverence in naturalistic, aesthetic, and socio-moral contexts predicted fewer complications following coronary artery bypass," conducted by Ai et al. (2009). These researchers looked at reverence following a coronary artery bypass. Ai et al. (2009) examined a “sense of reverence in religious and secular contexts” by interviewing 177 patients. Specifically they were investigating the faith-health relationship and seeking to find if religious forms of reverence practiced through faith and prayer yielded similar results to secular forms of reverence in patient recovery. Ai et al. (2009)state that, “Because reverence includes an affective as well as a cognitive component, we see it as a form of positive feeling/emotion associated with injection of the sacred into various worldviews”. These positive emotions were believed to help in patient recovery. The first finding of Ai et al. (2009) was consistent with other research that found “Positive influences of traditional religious involvement on health outcomes”. The second finding of Ai et al. (2009) was the “Positive effect of secular reverence on postoperative no-complication”. From this Ai et al. (2009) inferred that, “The capacity to sense reverence in significant naturalistic, moralistic, and aesthetic contexts seems to enhance recovery following bypass”. Strangely, “Religious reverence did not have the same beneficial effect as secular reverence on bypass recovery”. This inconsistency suggests that more research needs to be done on reverence in patient recovery.Awe
Keltner and Haidt’s extensive study on awe focuses on the importance of vastness and accommodation in experiencing awe. “Vastness refers to anything that is experienced as being much larger that the self”. Accommodation refers to the “Process of adjusting mental structures that cannot assimilate a new experience”. Their research on awe, which is a part of reverence, and how it is experienced through moral, spiritual, and aesthetic means, sheds light on the greater understanding of reverence. Their study also consists of a comprehensive summary on what has been “Written about awe in religion, philosophy, sociology, and psychology” and their own addition of “Related states such as admiration, elevation, and the epiphanic experience”.Haidt (2000) notes that since Maslow (1964) studied the changes that actualizing experiences can bring about in people's identities and in their moral
Moral
A moral is a message conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim...
and spiritual
Spirituality
Spirituality can refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.” Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop...
lives, little empirical research
Empirical research
Empirical research is a way of gaining knowledge by means of direct and indirect observation or experience. Empirical evidence can be analyzed quantitatively or qualitatively...
has been done to examine the peak experiences and moral transformations associated with positive moral emotions such as gratitude
Gratitude
Gratitude, thankfulness, gratefulness, or appreciation is a feeling, emotion or attitude in acknowledgment of a benefit that one has received or will receive. The experience of gratitude has historically been a focus of several world religions, and has been considered extensively by moral...
, elevation
Elevation
The elevation of a geographic location is its height above a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface ....
, awe
Awe
Awe is an emotion comparable to wonder but less joyous, and more fearful or respectful. Awe is defined in Robert Plutchik's Wheel of emotions as a combination of surprise and fear...
, admiration, and reverence. Haidt’s own work in these areas suggests that potent feelings of reverence may be associated with the peak experiences accompanying moral transformations, where, “Powerful moments of elevation sometimes seem to push a mental ‘reset button,’ wiping out feelings of cynicism
Cynicism
Cynicism , in its original form, refers to the beliefs of an ancient school of Greek philosophers known as the Cynics . Their philosophy was that the purpose of life was to live a life of Virtue in agreement with Nature. This meant rejecting all conventional desires for wealth, power, health, and...
and replacing them with feelings of hope
Hope
Hope is the emotional state which promotes the belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one's life. It is the "feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best" or the act of "look[ing] forward to with desire and reasonable confidence" or...
, love
Love
Love is an emotion of strong affection and personal attachment. In philosophical context, love is a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection. Love is central to many religions, as in the Christian phrase, "God is love" or Agape in the Canonical gospels...
, and optimism
Optimism
The Oxford English Dictionary defines optimism as having "hopefulness and confidence about the future or successful outcome of something; a tendency to take a favourable or hopeful view." The word is originally derived from the Latin optimum, meaning "best." Being optimistic, in the typical sense...
, and a sense of moral inspiration.”
Art and Mortality
Great artists in the creation of their art sometimes give concrete form to the culturally derived beliefs, values, and group identities that provide meaning and purpose to existenceExistence
In common usage, existence is the world we are aware of through our senses, and that persists independently without them. In academic philosophy the word has a more specialized meaning, being contrasted with essence, which specifies different forms of existence as well as different identity...
. Moreover, reverence for artwork that instantiates these central aspects of culture
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
can provide a means of buffering the existential anxiety
Anxiety
Anxiety is a psychological and physiological state characterized by somatic, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components. The root meaning of the word anxiety is 'to vex or trouble'; in either presence or absence of psychological stress, anxiety can create feelings of fear, worry, uneasiness,...
that follows from reminders of the inevitability of human mortality. Across history, cultures have revered art as a “forum for representing in an enduring medium those individuals who are held up as embodiments of virtue
Virtue
Virtue is moral excellence. A virtue is a positive trait or quality subjectively deemed to be morally excellent and thus is valued as a foundation of principle and good moral being....
and lasting significance.”
Transpersonal Reverence
Thomas and Schlutsmeyer in, “A Place for the Aesthetic in Experiential Personal Construct Psychology,” look at reverence through the lens of experiential personal construct psychology (EPCP). Leitner & Pfenninger, in 1994, theorized this form of psychology in “Sociality and optimal functioning.” Under this umbrella of psychology, “Reverence felt in meaningful interpersonal connectedness is one starting point for the development of a larger sense of connection with the world and the many others (human and nonhuman) in it”. This is referred to as transpersonal reverence.Thomas and Schlutsmeyer make the case for reverence in therapy: “In EPCP, reverence, as we stated earlier, is a goal of therapy, a sign of optimal functioning”. The therapist must revere the patient and the patient must learn to revere others and themselves in order for the therapy to be effective.
Quotations
"Above all things, reverence yourself." PythagorasPythagoras
Pythagoras of Samos was an Ionian Greek philosopher, mathematician, and founder of the religious movement called Pythagoreanism. Most of the information about Pythagoras was written down centuries after he lived, so very little reliable information is known about him...
"Let parents bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence." Plato
Plato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
“We know reverence first hand wherever we are truly at home.” Paul Woodruff
Paul Woodruff
Paul Woodruff is a classicist, professor of philosophy, and dean at the University of Texas at Austin, where he once chaired the department of philosophy and has more recently held the Hayden Head Regents Chair as director of Plan II Honors program, which he resigned in 2006 after 15 years of...
"Reverence does not die with mortals, nor does it perish whether they live or die." Sophocles
Sophocles
Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus, and earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides...
“He that will have his son have a respect for him and his orders must have a great reverence for his son.” John Locke
John Locke
John Locke FRS , widely known as the Father of Liberalism, was an English philosopher and physician regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers. Considered one of the first of the British empiricists, following the tradition of Francis Bacon, he is equally important to social...
"I love and reverence the Word, the bearer of the spirit, the tool and gleaming ploughshare of progress." Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate, known for his series of highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas, noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual...
"Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence." Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist...
"By having a reverence for life, we enter into a spiritual relation with the world By practicing reverence for life we become good, deep, and alive." Albert Schweitzer
Albert Schweitzer
Albert Schweitzer OM was a German theologian, organist, philosopher, physician, and medical missionary. He was born in Kaysersberg in the province of Alsace-Lorraine, at that time part of the German Empire...
"Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world." John Milton
John Milton
John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...
"Who is to decide what ought to command my reverence--my neighbor or I? . . You can't have reverence for a thing that doesn't command it. If you could do that, you could digest what you haven't eaten, and do other miracles and get a reputation." Mark Twain
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
, a Biography
"Fullness of knowledge always means some understanding of the depths of our ignorance; and that is always conducive to humility and reverence." Robert Millikan
Robert Millikan
Robert A. Millikan was an American experimental physicist, and Nobel laureate in physics for his measurement of the charge on the electron and for his work on the photoelectric effect. He served as president of Caltech from 1921 to 1945...
"The roots, or common principles of human morality are to be found in moral feelings such as commiseration, shame, respect, and reverence." Wing-Tsit Chan
Wing-tsit Chan
Professor Wing-tsit Chan was one of the world's leading scholars of Chinese philosophy and religion, active in the United States....
“Juvenal
Juvenal
The Satires are a collection of satirical poems by the Latin author Juvenal written in the late 1st and early 2nd centuries AD.Juvenal is credited with sixteen known poems divided among five books; all are in the Roman genre of satire, which, at its most basic in the time of the author, comprised a...
said that the greatest reverence is due the young (14.47), deliberately reversing the tradition that directs reverence ever upward.” Paul Woodruff
Paul Woodruff
Paul Woodruff is a classicist, professor of philosophy, and dean at the University of Texas at Austin, where he once chaired the department of philosophy and has more recently held the Hayden Head Regents Chair as director of Plan II Honors program, which he resigned in 2006 after 15 years of...
“Reverence for truth leads to humility in the face of the awesome task of getting something right” Paul Woodruff
Paul Woodruff
Paul Woodruff is a classicist, professor of philosophy, and dean at the University of Texas at Austin, where he once chaired the department of philosophy and has more recently held the Hayden Head Regents Chair as director of Plan II Honors program, which he resigned in 2006 after 15 years of...
“Reverence in the classroom calls for a sense of awe in the face of the truth and a recognition by teachers and students of their places in the order of learning.” Paul Woodruff
Paul Woodruff
Paul Woodruff is a classicist, professor of philosophy, and dean at the University of Texas at Austin, where he once chaired the department of philosophy and has more recently held the Hayden Head Regents Chair as director of Plan II Honors program, which he resigned in 2006 after 15 years of...
See also
"In MemoriamIn Memoriam A.H.H.
In Memoriam A.H.H. is a poem by the English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson, completed in 1849. It is a requiem for the poet's Cambridge friend Arthur Henry Hallam, who died suddenly of a cerebral haemorrhage in Vienna in 1833...
" by Tennyson
Tennyson
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, the first Baron Tennyson, was an English poet.Tennyson may also refer to:-People:* Baron Tennyson, the barony itself** Alfred, Lord Tennyson , poet...
. Paul Woodruff believes that Tennyson
Tennyson
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, the first Baron Tennyson, was an English poet.Tennyson may also refer to:-People:* Baron Tennyson, the barony itself** Alfred, Lord Tennyson , poet...
, “gave us the finest expression of reverence that we have in the English language, “In Memoriam”.
Deference
Deference
Deference is the condition of submitting to the espoused, legitimate influence of one's superior or superiors. Deference implies a yielding or submitting to the judgment of a recognized superior out of respect or reverence...
Awe
Awe
Awe is an emotion comparable to wonder but less joyous, and more fearful or respectful. Awe is defined in Robert Plutchik's Wheel of emotions as a combination of surprise and fear...
Emotion
Emotion
Emotion is a complex psychophysiological experience of an individual's state of mind as interacting with biochemical and environmental influences. In humans, emotion fundamentally involves "physiological arousal, expressive behaviors, and conscious experience." Emotion is associated with mood,...