seems closer to that of the ancient church (and to the usages reflected in the Bible) than to our own. Not just semantically but at a deeper conceptual level, activities for which words related to “worship” were used in the premodern world denote not a specific realm of activity like “liturgy” but the orientation of all forms of human activity, including the liturgical or ritual, toward a particular allegiance. Modern participants and practitioners of the somewhat different actions now variously