Prayer
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Prayer is an effort to communicate with God, or to some deity or deities, or another form of spiritual entity, or otherwise, either to offer praise, to make a request, or simply to express one's thoughts and emotions.
There are a variety of approaches to understanding prayer:
- The belief that the prayer is listened to, and may or may not get a response;
- The belief that prayer is intended to inculcate certain attitudes in the one who prays, rather than to influence the recipient;
- The belief that prayer is intended to train a person to focus on the recipient through philosophy and intellectual contemplation;
- The belief that prayer is intended to enable a person to gain a direct experience of the recipient;
- The belief that prayer is intended to affect the very fabric of reality itself.
The existence of prayer is attested in written sources as early as 5000 years ago. Anthropologists believe that the earliest intelligent modern humans practised something that we would recognize today as prayer.
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The act of prayer
Praying has many different forms.
- Prayer may be done privately and individually, or it may be done corporately in the presence of fellow believers. *Some outward acts that sometimes accompany prayer are: ringing a bell; burning incense or paper; lighting a candle or candles; facing a specific direction (i.e. towards Mecca or the East); making the sign of the cross.
- A variety of body postures may be assumed, often with specific meaning (mainly respect or adoration) associated with them: standing; sitting; kneeling; prostrate on the floor; eyes opened; eyes closed; hands folded or clasped; hands upraised; and others. Prayers may be recited from memory, read from a book of prayers, or composed spontaneously as they are prayed. They may be said, chanted, or sung. They may be with musical accompaniment or not. There may be a time of outward silence while prayers are offered mentally. Often, there are prayers to fit specific occasions, such as the blessing of a meal, the birth or death of a loved one, other significant events in the life of a believer, or days of the year that have special religious significance. Details corresponding to specific traditions are outlined below.
Walt Disney is quoted as saying:
- "A prayer, it seems to me, implies a promise as well as a request, at the highest level. Prayer not only is supplication for strength and guidance, but also becomes an affirmation of life and thus a reverent praise of God."
Prayer in ancient paganism
- The ever pragmatic Roman attitude is authentically rendered by the Latin phrase do ut des, meaning 'I give so you may give' : the mortal worshipper is trying to 'trade' his attentions (as offerings, promisses) for divine help or forgiveness
Prayer in the Abrahamic religions
Prayer in the Bible
In the Bible various forms of prayer appear; the most common form is petition. This in many ways is the simplest form of prayer. Some have termed this the "social approach" to prayer. In this view, a person directly confronts God in prayer, and asks for their needs to be fulfilled; God listens to prayer, and may or may not choose to answer. This is the primary approach to prayer found in the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, most of the Church writings, and in rabbinic literature such as the Talmud.
More detailed articles exist about prayer specifically in the Hebrew Bible and in the New Testament.
Jewish prayer
Main article: Jewish services
Jews pray three times a day, or more on special days, such as the Shabbat and Jewish holidays. The siddur is the prayerbook used by Jews the world over, containing a set order of daily prayers.
The most important Jewish prayers are the Shema Yisrael ("Hear O Israel") and the Amidah ("the standing prayer").
Christian prayer
Jesus provided a model for prayer in The Lord's Prayer. Many Christian denominations also have their own local prayerbooks. Many Christians also devise their own, personal prayers. Prayers said by Christians are described in the article on Prayer in Christianity.
Islamic prayer
Muslims pray a brief ritualistic prayer service called Salah in Arabic, facing Kaaba in Makka, five times a day. The "call for prayer" is called Adhan or Azaan. There are also many standard duas or supplications, also in Arabic, to be recited at various times, e.g. for one's parents, after salah, before eating. Muslims may also say dua in their own words and languages for any issues they wish to communicate with Allah.
Bahá'í prayer
Bahá'u'lláh, the Báb, and `Abdu'l-Bahá have revealed many prayers for general use, and some for specific occasions, including for unity, detachment, spiritual upliftment, and healing among others. Bahá'ís are also required to recite each day one of three obligatory prayers revealed by Bahá'u'lláh. The believers have been enjoined to face in the direction of the Qiblih when reciting their Obligatory Prayer. The longest obligatory prayer may be recited at any time during the day; another, of medium length, is recited once in the morning, once at midday, and once in the evening; and the shortest is recited at noon. This is the text of the short prayer: I bear witness, O my God, that Thou hast created me to know Thee and to worship Thee. I testify, at this moment, to my powerlessness and to Thy might, to my poverty and to Thy wealth. There is none other God but Thee, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting. Bahá'ís also read from and meditate on the scriptures every morning and evening.
Prayer in other Eastern religions
Hindu Prayer
Hinduism has incorporated many kinds of prayer, from fire-based rituals to philosophical musings. Prayer was part and parcel of the Vedic lifestyle, and as such permeated their books. Indeed, the highest sacred texts of the Hindus, the Vedas, are a large collection of mantras (sacred hymns of Hindus, later adopted by Buddhists) and prayer rituals extolling a single supreme force, Brahman, that is made manifest in several lower forms as the familiar gods of the Hindu pantheon. Hindus in India have numerous devotional movements. Hindus may pray to the highest absolute God Brahman, or more commonly to Its three manifestations namely creator god called Brahma, preserver god called Vishnu and detroyer god (so that the creation cycle can start afresh) Shiva, and at the next level to Vishnu's avatars (earthly appearances) Rama and Krishna or to many other male or female deities such as Laksmi (goddess of wealth) or Saraswati (goddess of knowledge). See the article on Prayer in Hinduism for more details.
Buddhism
Prayer in Jainism
Although Jains believe that no spirit or divine being can assist them on their path, they do hold some influence, and on special occasions, Jains will pray and meditate for right knowledge to the twenty-four Tirthankaras (saintly teachers).
Philosophical paradoxes of prayer
There are a number of philosophical paradoxes involving prayer to an omnipotent God, namely:
- If a person deserves the recipient of the prayer to give him the thing he prays for, why doesn't he receive it, even without prayer? And if a person is not deserving of it, then even if that person does pray and request it, should it be given just because of his prayer?
- Why should it be necessary to pray with speech? Doesn't the recipient know the thoughts of all people?
- If the recipient is omniscient (all-knowing) then doesn't that mean that they would know what we are going to ask for, even before we pray?
- How can a human being hope to change the mind of the recipient of the prayer? Why should human prayers affect those decisions?
- Do human beings actually have the ability to praise an omniscient and omnipotent entity? Praising is difficult to do without describing, yet how can a finite human being know anything about the entity's ultimate nature? This question was the subject of heated debate among many religious philosophers; one such debate took place in the 14th century between Gregory Palamas and Barlaam of Calabria.
- The prerequisite of asking for a favour is faith in the recipient of the prayer. But asking to change an aspect of creation seems to be expressing a dissatisfaction with the way things are - and hence not trusting the "plan"
Many of these questions have been discussed in Jewish, Christian and Muslim writings from the medieval period onward. The 900s to 1200s saw some of the most fertile discussion on these questions, during the period of Neo-Platonic and Neo-Aristotelian philosophy. Discussion of these problems never ceased entirely, but they did fall mostly from the public view for several centuries, until The Enlightenment reignited philosophical inquiry into theological issues.
All of these questions have been discussed in many Jewish, Christian and Muslim religious texts. There was much intellectual cross-fertilization between Jews, Christians and Muslims during parts of the middle-ages, and so there is much convergence among some of the rationalist philosophers of that era. Many of these texts offer proposed resolutions to some or all of these paradoxes.
The educational approach
In this view, prayer is not a conversation. Rather, it is meant to inculcate certain attitudes in the one who prays, but not to influence. Among Jews, this has been the approach of Rabbenu Bachya, Yehuda Halevy, Joseph Albo, Samson Raphael Hirsch, and Joseph Dov Soloveitchik. This view is expressed by Rabbi Nosson Scherman in the overview to the Artscroll Siddur (p.XIII); note that Scherman goes on to also affirm the Kabbalistic view (see below). Among Christian theologians...(please add examples here) Among Muslim theologians....(please add examples here).
The Kabbalistic view of prayer
Traditional kabbalah (esoteric Jewish mysticism) embraces the social approach, in which prayer is viewed as a dialogue. It further refines the approach by presenting exact kavanot, directions of intent, to specify the path the prayer ascends in the dialog to increases its chances of being answered favorably. Among Jews, this approach has been taken by the Hassidei Ashkenaz, the Zohar, the Kabbalist school of though created by the Ari, the Ramchal, most of Hassidism, the Vilna Gaon, and rabbis such as Yaakov Emden and Kalonimus Shapira.
Many people involved with kabbalah (esoteric Jewish mysticism) outside of traditional Jewish training follow an approach that often rejects rationalist reinterpreations of prayer outright, but also rejects the social approach, in which prayer is viewed as a dialogue. Instead, this approach ascribes a higher meaning to the purpose of prayer, which is no less than affecting the very fabric of reality itself, restructuring and repairing the universe in a real fashion. For these Kabbalists, every prayer, every word of every prayer, and indeed, even every letter of every word of every prayer, has a precise meaning and a precise effect. In Kabbalah and related mystical belief systems, adherents claim intimate knowledge about the way in which the divine relates to us and the physical universe in which we live. For people with this view, prayers can literally affect the mystical forces of the universe and repair the fabric of creation.
In the 1800s some European Christians were influenced by Kabbalah...(please add information here)
The rationalist approach
In this view, ultimate goal of prayer is to help train a person to focus on divinity through philosophy and intellectual contemplation. This approach was taken by Maimonides and the other medieval rationalists; it became popular in Jewish, Christian and Islamic intellectual circles, but never became the most popular understanding of prayer among the laity in any of these faiths. In all three of these faiths today a significant minority of people still hold to this approach.
The experiential approach
In this approach, the purpose of prayer is to enable the person praying to gain a direct experience of the recipient of the prayer (or as close to direct as a specific theology permits). This approach is very significant in Christianity and widespread in Judaism (although less popular theologically). In Eastern Orthodoxy, this approach is known as hesychasm. It is also widespread in Sufi Islam, and in some forms of mysticism. It has some similarities with the rationalist approach, since it can also involve contemplation, although the contemplation is not generally viewed as being as rational or intellectual. It also has some similarities with the Kabbalistic view, but it lacks the Kabbalistic emphasis on the importance of individual words and letters.
Claims of evidence for the effectiveness of prayer
Prayer is known to reduce stress and increase longevity in the praying person. The following applies only to prayer on behalf of others (intercessory prayer).
A famous statistical experiment whether prayer was effective was conducted by Francis Galton. Galton hypothetized that if prayer was effective, members of the British Royal family would live longer, given that thousands prayed for their wellbeing every Sunday. He therefore compared longetivity of the British Royal family with that of the general population, and found no difference. While the experiment was probably intended to satirize, and suffered from a number of confounders, it set the precedent for a number of different studies. Most confirmed his findings, while some studies concluded that prayer can have health benefits (e.g. Byrd RC, see below).
Some modalities of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) employ prayer, and a number of studies have claimed that patients who are being prayed for recover more quickly or more frequently. One such study (Byrd RC, 1988), with a double-blind design, showed with a p-value of 0.0001 that intercessory prayer to the Judeo-Christian god had a positive effect on a coronary care unit population. Sicher et al found statistically significant benefits to a group being prayed for ten years later (Sicher, Targ, Moore, Smith, 1998). Another confirmation was reported by William Harris (Harris et al, 1999).
Critics claim that Byrd's 1988 study was not fully double-blinded, and that in Harris's 1999 study, patients actually had a longer hospital stay on average if prayed for than if not prayed for, once one discounts the patients in both groups who left before prayers began. Critics also point to a number of studies where no similar effect was found (e.g. O'Laoire 1997). Typically, the scientific establishment ignores studies of the occult and esoteric, but in 1999, media reports on prayer studies prompted a comprehensive review of such studies in The Lancet. The result: "Even in the best studies, the evidence of an association between religion, spirituality, and health is weak and inconsistent." A 2001 double-blind study of the Mayo Clinic found no significant difference in the recovery rates between people who were (unbeknownst to them) assigned to a group that prayed for them (five people praying once a week for 26 weeks), and those who were not. In 2003, a second MANTRA study by Duke University contradicted the first MANTRA study's findings that intercessory prayer improved recovery rates in heart patients.
A survey released in May 2004 (http://nccam.nih.gov/news/camsurvey.htm) by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, part of the National Institutes of Health in the United States, found that in 2002, 43 percent of Americans pray for their own health, 24% pray for others health, and 10% participate in a prayer group for their own health.
For those who believe in something that can and does answer prayer, such studies do not prove nor disprove their notion that praying can result in miraculous healing. Many religious believers hold that it "cannot be tested" and such a study cannot be conducted without the recipient of prayer "being blind" to the study, which would be against their divine nature.
Historical polytheistic prayer
In Graeco-Roman paganism, ceremonial prayer was highly formulaic and ritualized. The Iguvine Tables contain a supplication that can be translated, "If anything was said improperly, if anything was done improperly, let it be as if it were done correctly."
The formalism and formulaic nature of these prayers led them to be written down in language that may have only been partially understood by the writer, and our texts of these prayers may in fact be garbled. Prayers in Etruscan were used in the Roman world by augurs and other oracles long after Etruscan became a dead language. The Carmen Arvale and the Carmen Saliare are two specimens of partially preserved prayers that seem to have been unintelligible to their scribes, and whose language is full of archaisms and difficult passages.
Roman prayers and sacrifices were often envisioned as legal bargains between deity and worshipper. The Roman formula was do ut des: "I give, so that you may give in return." Cato the Elder's treatise on agriculture contains many examples of preserved traditional prayers; in one, a farmer addresses the unknown deity of a possibly sacred grove, and sacrifices a pig in order to placate the god or goddess of the place and beseech his or her permission to cut down some trees from the grove.
See also
References and footnotes
- Byrd RC. Positive therapeutic effects of intercessory prayer in a coronary care unit population. South Med J 1988;81:826-9. PMID 3393937
- Moshe Greenberg, Biblical Prose Prayer as a Window to the Popular Religion of Ancient Israel
- Abraham Joshua Heschel, Man's Quest for God Scribner, NY, 1954
- Seth Kadish, Kavvana: Directing the Heart in Jewish Prayer, Jason Aronson Inc., 1997
- Charles Hugo Doyle, Guidance in Spiritual Direction, The Newman Press, 1959
- Father Gabriel, Divine Intimacy, Tan Books and Publishers, Inc., 1996, reprint edition.
- Geoffrey K. Mondello, The Search for Coherence (http://www.johnofthecross.com/preface_to_the_philosophy_of_st._john_of_the_cross.htm)
- 1 See, for example, "Unigenitus", published by Pope Clement VI, 27 Jan., A.D. 1343.
External links
- Faith-Medicine Connection Challenged (http://www.e-skeptic.de/040399.HTM)
- Spirithome's prayer theology and practice resources (http://www.spirithome.com/prayer.html)
- World Prayers (http://www.worldprayers.org/)
- Avilles et.al.: Intercessory prayer and cardiovascular disease progression in a coronary care unit population: a randomized trial, Mayo Clinic Proceedings 2001, vol 76, pp. 1192 - 1198 (http://www.mayo.edu/proceedings/2001/dec/7612a1.pdf)
- Second MANTRA study finds that prayer has no medical benefit (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3193902.stm)
- R.P. Sloan, E. Bagiella, T. Powell: Religion, spirituality, and medicine. Lancet 1999: 353, no 9153. (http://www.eatingbythebook.com/connect/0007.html)
- a particular meditative method of prayer often associated with Thomas Keating and Basil Pennington (http://www.centeringprayer.com/)
- Sacred Space, from Irish Jesuits (http://www.jesuit.ie/)
- 24-7 Prayer (http://www.24-7prayer.com/)
- The Jesus Prayer (http://www.religiousbook.net/Books/Complete_books/Jesus_prayer.html) The technique emerged that consisted in pronouncing the name of Jesus in one’s anahata, using it as a mantra.
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