THE WORLD AT WORSHIP

THE many paths and pageants, moods and means through which man comes before divinity have never been presented so sumptuously as in a big new book out this week: The World's Great Religions, by the Editors of LIFE (TIME Inc.-Simon & Schuster; $13.50). Compiled with the aid of ten writers, 82 experts and the full photographic resources of LIFE, this expansion of the magazine's famed Great Religions series of 1955 takes readers on a guided tour of Hinduism, Buddhism. Chinese philosophy. Islam. Judaism and Christianity.

Most spectacular part of the book is a collection of 248 color photographs (see following pages) showing the world at worship in its almost infinite variety--under spire and cupola, in unadorned home and amid Renaissance splendor, with plain, quiet face and behind garish ceremonial mask. Along with essays on the fundamentals of the six faiths, the book presents samplings of their scriptures. Standout among the articles: the introductory essay on "How Mankind Worships" by the late Dr. Paul Hutchinson. longtime (1947-55) editor of the Christian Century. Though an uncompromising enemy of the syncretistic idea that what mankind needs is a new religion combining the best features of all the old ones, Hutchinson reminds readers that any man at prayer is at his best.

"There is a tendency, a product of the egotism in all of us, to mock the unfamiliar in other men's faith and worship. Such words as 'heathen,' 'idolatry,' 'superstition.' are used more often as smear words or in derision than in their legitimate meanings. They are words we hurl at others; seldom do we apply them to ourselves. Yet every man should command respect in the moment when he bows before his god. We may believe that his conception of the Divine lacks valuable, even essential, elements. His forms of worship may appear to us bizarre, sometimes repellent. But in that moment of prayer, every man is at his best; if we are as wise as we like to think ourselves, it is then that we will try to understand him. This book is an approach to such understanding."

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