The Encyclopedia of World Religions

liturgy S 265

the large number of young people in their late teens and early twenties who devote 18 months of their lives to the work of the church. Further reading: The Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City, Utah: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1982); Claudia Lauper Bushman and Richard Lyman Bushman, Mormons in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999); Terryl L. Givens, The Latter-day Saint Experience in America (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2004). Lent In Christianity, the period of 40 days before Easter, beginning with the day known as Ash Wednesday. Lent has traditionally been a time of fasting and penitence, though the discipline may range from an almost complete fast to abstaining from meat on certain days to a personal practice of giving up luxuries. Lent is observed in the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and some Protestant churches. Lévi-Strauss, Claude (1908– ) French anthro pologist and a leading figure in a kind of analysis called structuralism Lévi-Strauss was concerned with exploring the way people think. In doing so, he created an approach called structuralism. It was inspired by work in linguistics, that is, the scien tific study of language. (Linguistics is different from learning to read or speak a language.) Lévi-Strauss tried to identify the codes that enabled human beings to think. He was especially interested in human beings that earlier anthropolo gists had called “primitive” or “savage.” Accord ing to Lévi-Strauss, mental codes were made up of “binary oppositions,” such as nature and culture, or raw and cooked. Lévi-Strauss focused most of his attention on mythology. He argued for a striking position. In his view, one did not find the meaning of a myth in the story itself or its symbolism. A myth’s meaning was the code that underlay the myth. Structural analysis was the way to uncover that code. See also RELIGION , STUDY OF .

lila A Sanskrit word for “sport” or “play.” Hin dus explain the relation of God to the world in sev eral ways. One way uses the term lila. God creates and sustains the world by playing, that is, through action that lacks any purpose or self-interest. The term lila is not limited to any particular Hindu sect. For example, those who worship Siva see the dance by which Siva creates the world as lila. But lila has been especially important for worshippers of Vishnu. It is most especially important for those who worship the young Krishna. The mythology of the youthful Krishna emphasizes his mischievous, playful exploits. His worshippers see their ultimate goal as participating forever in Krishna’s play. Lilith A female demon in Jewish folklore. Lilith seems to be historically related to the Babylonian spirits known as Lilu and Lilitu. She appears only once in the Bible, in Isaiah 34.14. In later folklore she is said to snatch children, especially babies, to threaten women in childbirth, and to seduce men, especially in the middle of the night. Accord ing to some traditions she was Adam’s first wife, renowned—and rejected—for her independence. She also came to figure prominently in kabbal ah. Traditionally, Jews used amulets, or charms, to ward off Lilith. Today, they generally dismiss her as outdated superstition. In the late 20th century, how ever, some Jewish feminists saw in Lilith’s inde pendence from Adam a positive mythic image of womanhood, which they have sought to recover. liturgy An ordered form of worship, especially in Christianity. The word liturgy comes from a Greek word meaning “public work.” Before Chris tianity, a liturgy was any public work that people with money had to sponsor. These public works included religious festivals. In Christianity liturgy refers to a fixed order for worship. It applies especially to the order for worship used to celebrate the E UCHARIST in Ortho dox and Catholic Christianity ( see E ASTERN O RTHO DOX C HRISTIANITY and R OMAN C ATHOLICISM ). In the