Prayer,God Imagery,and Symptoms of Psychopathology

Researchers have shown a longstanding interest in the relationship between religion and mental health. Here, we outline a series of hypotheses linking personal prayer, images of God, and mental health. We then empirically test the hypotheses using data from an online survey of U.S. adults (N= 1,629) conducted in 2004 by Spirituality and Health magazine. We find a positive correlation between both frequency of prayer and the perception of God as remote and several different forms of psychopathology; a perceived intimate relationship with a loving God is inversely related. The positive association between prayer and psychopathology manifests itself primarily among individuals who experience God as either (a) remote or (b) not loving. We also find an inverse correlation between prayer and psychopathology among individuals who believe that they are praying to a close (the inverse of remote) God. We discuss the implications of these findings for research on the religion-mental health connection and outline an agenda for future research.     

God-language in Public and Private Prayer: A Place for Integrating Gender,Sexuality and Faith

Abstract

Drawing on feminist liturgical critiques of prayer, Audre Lorde's notion of the erotic and Carter Heyward's relational theology, amongst other feminist, Womanist, Black and queer sources, this article proposes that prayer via gendered and erotic images of God and Christ may be a site for the integration of gender, sexuality and faith — not only in the life of the individual but in the wider body politic. The notion of integration is problematized alongside heteropatriarchal practices of prayer, and an eschatological understanding of prayer and identity offered. The article argues for prayer which engages with a multiplicity of embodied, erotic and queer images of God (and particularly Christ), as necessary to the complex work of personal and political integration with which prayer is charged as well as gesturing towards the fullness and mystery of God who both inhabits and transcends the limitations of metaphorical discourse about the divine.     

Prayer Type,Disclosure, and Mental Health Across Religious Groups

Researchers have found that disclosure to God partially explains associations between certain prayer types and mental health in a Christian sample. Although researchers have discovered several mediators explaining associations between prayer types and mental health, the use of predominantly Christian samples limits generalizability. In this study, the authors tested disclosure to God as a mediator in Jewish, Muslim, and Christian subsamples. Analyses indicated several differences among the groups; disclosure to God mediated associations between prayer type and mental health only among Christians.     

Can Prayer Increase Charitable Giving? Examining the Effects of Intercessory Prayer,Moral Intuitions,and Theological Orientation on Generous Behavior

This study was designed to investigate the effects of intercessory prayer, moral intuitions, God concept, and theological orientation on generous behavior in the form of charitable giving. Christian participants (N = 313) were assigned to engage in either intercessory prayer or a secular reflection over a 2-week period on the hardships faced by either Christians (religious ingroup) or Muslims (religious outgroup) in Myanmar/Burma being persecuted by the Buddhist majority. Contrary to hypotheses and previous research, multiple regression analyses revealed that the prayer condition was associated with less monetary generosity than a nonreligious control condition. Ingroup versus outgroup status of the target of prayer/reflections was not a significant predictor of charitable giving. Moral intuitions related to the harm/care and fairness/reciprocity foundations as well as traditional God concept moderated the effects of prayer.     

God as Thou and Prayer as Dialogue: Martin Buber’s Tools for Reconciliation

??Prayer?? can be defined as ??the offering, in public worship or private devotion, of petition, confession, adoration, or thanksgiving to God; also the form of words in which such an offering is made?? (cf. Cohn-Sherbok 2010). In addition to this simple definition it could be said that there are different forms of prayer: some are vocal and articulate and others are only mental in nature; some prayers are communal and liturgical and other prayers are spontaneous or at least composed by the one saying the prayer (cf. Stump 1999). Accordingly, it is evident that there are manifold intricacies involved in any characterisation of ??prayer??. In this article my aims are twofold. First, I explore the implications of Martin Buber??s philosophy, particularly of his conception of God as Thou for our understanding of ??prayer??; second, I will argue that Buber??s understanding of ??prayer?? as dialogue serves as a way for the individual to seek reconciliation with itself, with others, and with God.     

Sacredness and Aesthetics: Kearney and Desmond on Prayer

Heidegger famously asserted that one cannot pray to the God of onto‐theo‐logic. God is here made into a determinate concept, the highest idea of reason, and thereby loses its constitutive transcendence and personhood. To think of God appropriately after Heidegger means to think of God in a way amenable to prayer. It is widely recognized that deconstruction does not fare well on this score as it turns prayer into some form of meditation/contemplation. In response, one ought to look for something between onto‐theo‐logic and deconstruction. In this article, I explore and assess two attempts to do so, by Richard Kearney and William Desmond respectively. I argue that Kearney does not manage to escape the trap of deconstruction because he does not allow for an intimation of God in prayer. This is achieved in a more metaphysical register by Desmond.     

Faith and Mental Health in an Oncology Population

This study compares faith attitudes versus behaviors for their relationship to mental health in current cancer patients and survivors. This cross-sectional survey of ambulatory patients included Hodge’s intrinsic religious motivation scale, Benson & Spilka’s concept of God scale, frequency of prayer, and the mental health subscale of the MOS SF-36. One hundred and fifty-eighty patients, mostly women with breast cancer, completed questionnaires (92% return). Mental health was positively related to a concept of a loving God (P < .001) and negatively related to the concept of a stern God (P < .002). Mental health was unrelated to goal of treatment (cure vs. chemotherapy/palliation), frequency of prayer, intrinsic faith motivation, or physical pain. Viewing God as loving was strongly related to better mental health, even in the presence of a poor prognosis or pain.     

基督徒祷告过程中人神依恋关系的质性探索

采用质性研究方法探索基督徒祷告过程中人神依恋关系的形成与发展。研究者以“局外人”身份, 采用逐步暴露方式进入研究现场开展客位研究。运用强度抽样方式和综合式抽样策略, 抽取14名(男女各7名)正式受洗(受洗时间从2年到32年不等)的基督徒作为样本, 通过深度访谈收集资料; 运用扎根理论对收集到的资料依次进行初步分析、类属分析和理论建构; 运用参与者检验法、非参与者检验法对研究结果进行效度检验。研究得出以下结论：祷告是基督徒以“信靠”作为承诺, 向上帝袒露心迹, 提出心理诉求, 进而与上帝建立亲密关系的沟通方式和重要渠道, 它提供了人神依恋系统被激活的情境。“信靠”是基督徒通过祷告与上帝之间形成和发展人神依恋关系的前提条件和关键因素; 人神亲密度的增加又反过来促进人对于神的信靠程度。现实生活的困难为基督徒祷告提供了刺激源, 并推动人神依恋关系不断向前发展。基督徒的祷告经历了三个阶段, 由Ⅰ期向Ⅲ期水平渐次提升, 最终形成“以上帝为中心”的困难应对图式。在此过程中, 随着“上帝”的观念越来越深地植入基督徒的自我, 有关“上帝”的心理表征不断得到强化, 相反, 有关“自我”的心理表征渐次弱化, 最终进入某种“无我”的状态。     

Personal Identity And Integration: Von Balthasar's Phenomenology Of Human Holiness

In the view of Hans Urs von Balthasar, what is needed to bring a human life to fulfilment—to become 'whole'—is the death of one's 'personality', and the acquisition of one's specific 'personhood', which is given to one, along with one's mission, by God. Moreover, according to von Balthasar, a human being becomes a 'unique person' when encountering God in contemplative prayer. And it is within contemplative prayer that one comes into contact with one's 'Idea', which is actualised when one' personal identity is fully developed, and which it is one's mission to conform to. Thus this article shows how the fundamental components of von Balthasar's distinctive phenomenological model of human holiness fit together, in actual practice as lived, around his core concept of 'mission'.     

Secure Attachment to God Uniquely Linked to Psychological Health in a National,Random Sample of American Adults

Relationships between religiousness and psychological health are well established. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate whether perceived relationship with God (i.e., attachment to God) or how people view God (i.e., image of God) account for variation in psychological distress and well-being. Statistical relationships between two attachment to God dimensions (avoidance, anxiety), two dimensions of God image (forgiving, wrathful), and general psychological well-being were investigated in a convenience sample (Study 1) and nationally representative sample (Study 2) of American adults who expressed belief in God or a higher power. In both studies, secure attachment to God (i.e., lower avoidance, lower anxiety) and religious service attendance were positively correlated with self-reported psychological well-being. Hierarchical regressions indicated that attachment to God dimensions account for unique variability in reported mental health even after religious service attendance, prayer frequency, God image and demographic variables were statistically controlled. Negligible associations were found between images of God as forgiving or wrathful and psychological well-being. Perceived relationship with God appears to be an important factor in the connection between religiousness and psychological health.     

Adolescent Boys’ Use of Emo Music as Their Healing Lament

Emo music is one avenue through which God can begin or continue a process of healing found through connectedness, sharing, and understanding. God can use songs of lament to bring awareness of pain. Emo music can also offer an environment for the suffering individual to begin to think about and develop vocabulary to describe their pain. In some cases, the music can serve as a prayer of faith for the adolescent, allowing him to connect with God.     

Trust-Based Prayer Expectancies and Health Among Older Mexican Americans

This study assesses the health-related effects of trust-based prayer expectancies, which reflect the belief that God answers prayers at the right time and in the best way. The following relationships are evaluated in our conceptual model: (1) older Mexican Americans who attend worship services more often tend to develop a closer relationship with God; (2) people who feel close to God will be more likely to develop trust-based prayer expectancies; (3) people who endorse trust-based prayer expectancies will have greater feelings of self-esteem; and (4) higher self-esteem is associated with better self-rated health. The data support each of these relationships.     

The experiential problem for petitionary prayer

Sometimes people petition God for things through prayer. This is puzzling, because if God always does what is best, it is not clear how these prayers can make a difference to what God does. Difference-Making accounts of petitionary prayer attempt to explain how these prayers can nonetheless influence what God does. I argue that, insofar as one is motivated to endorse a Difference-Making Account because they want to respect widespread intuitions about this feature of petitionary prayer, they should also be motivated to endorse an account of prayer that respects widespread intuitions about other central features of petitionary prayer. I describe three problematic cases and the intuitions we have about them, and show how these intuitions restrict any Difference-Making account of petitionary prayer.     

Lifetime Trauma,Prayer, and Psychological Distress in Late Life

The purpose of this study is to see whether prayer helps older people cope more effectively with the adverse effects of lifetime trauma. Data from a nationwide survey of older adults reveal that the size of the relationship between traumatic events and depressive symptoms is reduced for older people who believe that only God knows when it is best to answer a prayer and when they believe that only God knows the best way to answer it. The findings further reveal that these beliefs about prayer outcomes are especially likely to offset the effects of traumatic events that arose during childhood.     

Close Ties,Intercessory Prayer,and Optimism Among American Adults: Locating God in the Social Support Network

Prayer is often an interpersonal phenomenon. It represents not only a form of social support shared between or among people, but also a means of embedding an unobservable actor (God) within a conventionally observable social network. This study considers whether the receipt of intercessory prayer from close network ties is associated with future‐oriented well‐being. Analyses use social network module data from the Portraits of American Life Study (PALS), a nationally representative study of American adults containing a breadth of information not available in prior studies of networks, prayer, and well‐being. Despite experiencing more instances of recent adversity (mental or physical health problem, financial trouble, and unemployment), prayed‐for PALS respondents report the highest levels of optimism. Furthermore, the association between network prayer and optimism is robust to inclusion of individual‐level indicators of religiosity. Finally, other forms of social support that an individual receives from his or her close ties do not explain the benefits of intercessory prayer.     

Framing gratitude journaling as prayer amplifies its hedonic and eudaimonic well-being,but not health,benefits

Abstract

Gratitude is commonly practiced as prayer, but experimental studies testing the ability of gratitude journaling interventions to increase well-being have only examined secular forms of thanksgiving. We hypothesized that framing gratitude journaling as prayer would amplify its well-being effects. Undergraduate participants (N = 196) were instructed to write 10 things for which they were grateful once a week for five weeks. Participants were randomly assigned to read their thanks aloud to themselves, read their thanks to another person, or pray their thanks aloud to God. Participants in the prayer condition experienced a decrease in negative affect, and participants in the prayer condition who also exerted high effort demonstrated gains in gratitude, positive affect, and hope. Results indicate that the prayer condition may have led to increased health symptoms. Non-significant effects for the social condition suggest that the mechanisms explaining the effects of prayer are related to the theistic and sacred elements of prayer rather than its social features.     

Difficulties in Defining the Concept of God: Kierkegaard in Dialogue with Levinas,Buber, and Rosenzweig

This article investigates difficulties in defining the concept of God by focusing on the question of what it means to understand God as a ‘person.’ This question is explored with respect to the work of Søren Kierkegaard, in dialogue with Franz Rosenzweig, Martin Buber, and Emmanuel Levinas. Thereby, the following three questions regarding divine ‘personhood’ come into view: First, how can God be a partner of dialogue if he at the same time remains unknown and unthinkable, a limit-concept of understanding? Second, if God is love in person and at the same time a spiritual reality ‘between’ human agents, in what ways are his personal and trans-personal traits related to each other? Third, what exactly is revealed through God’s ‘name’? By way of an inconclusive conclusion, divine personhood is discussed in regard to prayer, where the problems of predication that arise in third-personal speech about God are linked with the second-personal encounter with God.

     

Living the eighth day online: liturgies,sacramental life,and building human relationships

ABSTRACT

Online human relationships can exacerbate some of the worst of our tendencies toward each other, including deception, selfishness, apathy and disembodiment, and sexual harassment. Yet Christians can also bring their prayer practices online, as ways of bringing God’s new creation (known in Christian tradition as the Eighth Day) to the forefront. Through examination of three distinctive online prayer practices, combined with discussion of liturgical and sacramental theologies, this article shows that prayer online also holds out possibilities of reconciliation and justice as potential responses to negative human relationship tendencies.     

Assessing the Relationships Among Prayer Expectancies, Race, and Self-Esteem in Late Life

When people pray, they have certain beliefs or expectations about the nature of the response they hope to receive. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between two specific prayer expectancies and self-esteem with data provided by a nationwide survey of older adults. The first has to do with the timing of answers to prayers while the second involves the ways prayers are answered. The data suggest that feelings of self-worth are highest when older people believe that only God knows when it is best to answer a prayer, and only God knows the best way to answer it. In contrast, self-esteem tends to be lower among older adults who believe prayers are answered right away and believe they get exactly what they ask for. However, further analysis reveals that the benefits of prayer expectancies are more evident among older African Americans than among older whites.