[2] 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".
[4] Nature, science, literature, philosophy, great philosophers, leaders, artists, art, music, wisdom, and beauty may each act as the stimulus and focus of reverence.
[5]: 3 Woodruff defines reverence as the ability to feel awe directed at the transcendent, respect for others, and shame over one's own faults, when these emotions are appropriate.
[5]: 19 These ceremonial practices occur in various settings, including homes, meetings, voting, and religious contexts, shaping the backdrop for experiencing reverence.
[5]: 35 Woodruff contends that in a functioning society, reverence, ceremony, and respect remain indispensable even though their significance may go unnoticed.
[5]: 38 Woodruff asserts that true reverence pertains to aspects beyond human influence: the "ideal of unity," which transcends political concerns.
[5]: 57 In classical Greek society, as illustrated in its surviving literature, reverence served as a motivating force, encouraging people to act justly and humbly to contribute to societal improvement.
[5]: 110 Woodruff argues that deviating from tradition does not necessarily imply irreverence, and he critiques relativism, advocating instead that people critically evaluate all cultures and forms of reverence.
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).
One intriguing study examined a "sense of reverence in religious and secular contexts" in 177 patients following a coronary artery bypass.
[9][page needed] Their research how awe is experienced through moral, spiritual, and aesthetic means, helps us understand reverence.
Their study includes a survey of previous literature about awe "in religion, philosophy, sociology, and psychology" and "[r]elated states such as admiration, elevation, and the epiphanic experience".
[10]: 287 Great artists sometimes give concrete form to culturally derived beliefs, values, and group identities that propose profound meaning and purpose.
Reverence for artworks that instantiate such central aspects of culture can buffer the existential anxiety that follows from reminders of the inevitability of human mortality.
[11] 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".
[11]: 123 From the standpoint of experiential personal construct psychology (EPCP),[12] Thomas and Schlutsmeyer suggest that "[r]everence 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".
[14] "Similarly for its bracing sibling, awe: it figures in our experience of the sublime, of which Kant purports to find an entirely secular account.