Philosophers commonly assume that worship is a universal attitude. Two major approaches see worship as a sui generis attitude or as the specific attitude of respect. This article criticizes the universal assumption and defines worship as a ritual that shapes a person in acquiring the attitude considered appropriate in relating to a superior such as God. Religions differ in their rituals of worship because they disagree on what this appropriate attitude is. This claim is demonstrated by distinguishing the Hebrew Bible's form of worship as bowing down. Biblical worship is shown to be political, forming the worshipper into a loyal servant of God as king. This form of worship is argued to be fundamentally ethical because it teaches that the individual's relationship with God supervenes on human relationships.

哲学家通常认为崇拜是一种普遍的态度。两种主要的方法将敬拜视为一种特殊的态度或尊重的具体态度。这篇文章批评了普遍的假设，并将敬拜定义为一种仪式，它塑造了一个人在与上帝等上级交往时获得被认为适当的态度。不同宗教的敬拜仪式不同，因为他们不同意这种适当的态度是什么。通过将希伯来圣经的敬拜形式区分为鞠躬来证明这一主张。圣经敬拜被证明是政治性的，将敬拜者塑造成上帝忠诚的仆人，成为君王。这种敬拜形式被认为从根本上讲是合乎道德的，因为它教导个人与上帝的关系凌驾于人际关系之上。