The demand problem in worship

Abstract

One important debate in the recent philosophy of worship concerns what grounds the obligation to worship God, including whether worship can be grounded in divine commands. I argue that this debate does not adequately address a further question: whether a being worthy of worship can fittingly demand worship at all. Although this question is distinct from the Grounding Problem, its relationship to that problem depends in part on how the obligation to worship is grounded. I further argue that this problem is best understood as a structural tension concerning directed expressive duties, a tension discussed most explicitly in the recent literature on gratitude. After reconstructing the Demand Problem in Gratitude, I formulate the corresponding Demand Problem in Worship and argue that the two share the same underlying structure. I then examine the three strategies proposed for resolving the gratitude case and argue that, even if they succeed there, none can be successfully extended to worship. Applying these strategies to the Demand Problem in Worship either turns out to be impossible or requires revisions that carry substantial theological costs for traditional theism. I conclude that the Demand Problem in Worship is substantially more resistant to resolution than its counterpart in gratitude, thereby exposing a deep tension within traditional theistic understandings of worship.