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.     

The Lord's Prayer in Eastern Spirituality

This article first speaks briefly of prayer in general and its essence; and then discusses various kinds of prayer in the Orthodox Christian tradition, chief among which is personal prayer made in private, and liturgical prayer celebrated in church. There is also spontaneous prayer, less favored in Orthodoxy, where the model prayer is the Lord's Prayer. The main part of the article examines the petitions that make up the Lord's Prayer and the interpretation given to them by patristic writers. It concludes by affirming the unique character of the prayer, which can be regarded as the perfect summary of the Christian message.     

Centering prayer’s effects on psycho-spiritual outcomes: a pilot outcome study

Centering prayer is a spiritual and religious form of meditation grounded in the history of Christian contemplative prayer. Despite its popularity, empirical research investigating centering prayer’s effects on psycho-spiritual outcomes is relative sparse. This pilot outcome study explored the effect of a centering prayer workshop on participants’ (N?=?9) depression, anxiety, stress, spiritual transcendence, religious crisis, faith development, and mindfulness. Several significant changes were noted over the course of the six-week study, including decreased anxiety and stress, and increased faith development and mindfulness. Interestingly, we noted that participants likely also experienced a spiritual or religious struggle that follows the established spiritual development paradigm called the Dark Night of the Soul. The study did not include a control group, and so did not account for effects related to history, maturation, or regression to the mean. Nevertheless, the initial results prove promising to develop more sophisticated research programmes that replicate the study’s findings.     

Bio‐Theoacoustics: Prayer Outdoors and the Reality of the Natural World

What does it mean to pray when the Earth—the fabric of our bodies’ lives, and indeed of the incarnation itself—is profoundly endangered from human action? What would Christian prayer look like that was not “losing track of nature” but following its tracks, physically and spiritually immersed in the actual, present, threatened and wild life of the more‐than‐human world? Using categories outlined by Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his Ethics, this essay asserts that prayer and worship that take place entirely within the wall‐, speech‐, and screen‐mediated bubble of anthropocentrism risk becoming an abstraction. The essay explores this assertion in three moves: first, it delineates Bonhoeffer's assertion of the “abstraction” created by forms of Christian life in which God is conceived in separation from the world. Next, it shows how these categories—“God” and “world”—come together in prayer outdoors, understood both literally and metaphorically. And finally, it proposes how prayer outdoors might take shape for individuals or communities: a bio‐theoacoustics of prayer for the life of the world.     

THE "OPEN COUNTRY WHOSE NAME IS PRAYER": APOPHASIS, DECONSTRUCTION, AND CONTEMPLATIVE PRACTICE

While much has been written on the dialogue between postmodernism and the Christian apophatic tradition, there has been little focus on the role of what lies at the heart of this tradition: the practice of contemplation. By looking at contemplative authors such as Evagrius Ponticus and others, this article shows that contemplative practice, situated in a life of contemplation, relates closely to postmodernism's critique of ontotheology. Contemplative practice deconstructs the epistemologically constituted self that knows itself as knowing and God as known (to paraphrase Mary‐Jane Rubenstein).     

Prayer,Self‐Examination,and Christian Catechesis in Augustine and Luther

Augustine and Luther are well known for their self‐examinations of religious experience, especially its trials and temptations. Their theologies of prayer offer a distinctive window into this self‐examination because they traverse the juncture between doctrine and practice, thereby addressing both the theological and pastoral concerns on sin and grace at the heart of their discussions of religious experience. While emanating from their personal spiritual lives, their theologies of prayer also are firmly rooted within the corporate context of the church and Christian catechesis.     

Attending to the Sabbath: An Alternative Direction in Karl Barth's Theology of Prayer

Most accounts of Karl Barth's theology of prayer focus on the active dimensions of prayer, as prioritized in the formal sections on prayer in the Church Dogmatics. This leads to the suspicion that Barth has little time for the contemplative and reflective dimensions of prayer. This article will complement the existing approaches by broadening the scope of inquiry from the formal prayer‐sections into other, less obvious areas of the Dogmatics to uncover an alternative, contemplative, direction in Barth's theology of prayer. It will suggest, therefore, that attending to his rich but often‐neglected account of the Sabbath affords the opportunity to begin the work of reassessing Barth's relation to the contemplative tradition.     

Mindfulness,Christian Devotion Meditation,surrender, and worry

This article will present an approach for accommodating the benefits of mindfulness into therapy with Christians struggling with worry. Given the psychological benefits of mindfulness and its connection to spirituality, it is not surprising that both therapists and Christian clients are attempting to incorporate it into counselling. Centering prayer, which is a form of Christian Devotion Meditation, provides an accommodative approach to managing worry for Christian clients. The results of this study indicate that surrender, a key component of centering prayer, provides an empirical link for incorporating the benefits of mindfulness for Christians.     

Rethinking Secularism,edited by Craig Calhoun,Mark Juergensmeyer and Jonathan VanAntwerpen,Oxford University Press: Oxford and New York, 2011, vii + 311 pp. ISBN 978 019979667-0, US$99.00 (hbk); ISBN 978 019979668 7, US$24.95 (pbk)

Neo-monasticism, including the desire to live in Christian intentional community, is increasingly popular in the United States. Communities are structured around a rule or shared covenant that outlines the parameters of living in community. Daily prayer is often a central feature to neo-monastic life as is an emphasis on socio-ecological justice. Drawing on recent Christian theology about gardens, a popular neo-monastic book of common prayer, interviews with practitioners of neo-monasticism, and fieldwork conducted with a nascent neo-monastic community in the southeastern United States, this article argues that prayer acts as a religious technology of the self for socio-ecological change. Through prayer, participants of intentional communities change, and this in turn leads to acts that alter the socio-ecological worlds around them.     

Interreligious prayer between Christians and Muslims

This article distinguishes various ways in which the term ‘pray together’ might be understood and focuses on ‘interreligious prayer’, by which is meant here praying together using the same words with two religious groups united in heart and mind, rather than ‘multireligious prayer’, which refers to prayer in the presence of another religious group. The article argues that, in the early literature on the matter, there is a danger of conflating the two different types, and then shows that some Catholic communities, following the initiatives of Pope John Paul II, have reached a consensus that interreligious prayer is problematic, while multireligious prayer is not. The article goes on to consider an essay by Joseph Ratzinger, which discusses the preconditions for interreligious prayer and is very sceptical about its possibility, except perhaps for Christians and Jews. Finally, one of Ratzinger's preconditions for interreligious prayer is used to examine the possible grounds for interreligious prayer between Christians and Muslims, and the article argues that the door is as yet neither closed nor open.     

Patterns of Change in Prayer Activity,Expectancies, and Contents During Older Adulthood

Prayer is the most common form of religious practice and a central part of religious experience, yet little is known about whether individuals’ prayer activities and beliefs tend to remain stable or develop over the life course. This study examines change during the course of older adulthood in a range of dimensions of prayer, including total frequency of private prayer, specific beliefs and expectancies regarding prayer, and the contents of prayers. Data come from four waves of an ongoing longitudinal survey of Christian older adults, covering a period of seven years. Growth curve analysis was used to model patterns of within‐person change in these factors. Linear increase was observed in total prayer frequency and in beliefs about prayer emphasizing placing trust in God over expecting immediate rewards. Frequency of prayer increased for all types of prayer contents, including prayers for others, for God's will, in thanksgiving, for guidance, for health, and for material goods. Only the belief that one's prayers are answered remained stable during the course of the study. Results highlight the dynamic nature of prayer beliefs and behaviors in late life, and partially support a pattern of growing faith maturity.     

“I want to pray and I don’t want to pray”: expressive individualism and prayer

This article reports on a study of the relationship between expressive individualism, an important characteristic of individualistic cultures, and different varieties of prayer. Four dimensions of expressive individualism (autonomy, setting oneself apart from others, personal development, and the expression of emotions) and four types of prayer (petitionary, religious, meditative, and psychological) were distinguished. Data were collected from participants in internet forums on Christian religiosity (N?=?158); they were asked to complete questionnaires about expressive individualism and prayer. The relationship between expressive individualism and prayer was found to be an ambivalent one, and one that is negatively dominated by autonomy. After eliminating the effect of autonomy, two patterns remain visible, both of them characterised by a positive connection to religiosity. Setting oneself apart from others is associated with petitionary and religious prayer; personal development with meditative and psychological prayer. The explanation of this concealed longing for religion is sought in the pressure resulting from expressive individualism as a way of life.     

POSSIBILITIES AND LIMITS OF MEDICAL SCIENCE: DEBATES OVER DOUBLE‐BLIND CLINICAL TRIALS OF INTERCESSORY PRAYER

Abstract. This article traces the intellectual history of scientific studies of intercessory prayer published in English between 1965 and the present by focusing on the conflict and discussion they prompted in the medical literature. I analyze these debates with attention to how researchers articulate the possibilities and limits medical science has for studying intercessory prayer over time. I delineate three groups of researchers and commentators: those who think intercessory prayer can and should be studied scientifically, those who are more skeptical and articulate the limits of science around this topic, and those who focus primarily on the pragmatic applications of this knowledge. I analyze these contests as examples of what Thomas Gieryn calls “epistemic authority” as medical researchers engage in what he describes as “boundary‐work” or “the discursive attribution of selected qualities to scientists, scientific methods, and scientific claims for the purposes of drawing a rhetorical boundary between science and some less authoritative residual non‐science.” (Gieryn 1999, 4 (Gieryn 1999, 4)).     

Religion and Psychology: New Research. Edited by Sylvan D. Ambrose. New York: Nova Science, 2006. xi + 311 pp. $79.00 hardcover

The possible moderating functions of prayer duration and belief in prayer on the prayer–well-being relation were examined. A multidimensional self-report measure of prayer including five types of prayer—Supplication, Thanksgiving, Adoration, Confession, and Reception—as well as measures of prayer duration, belief in prayer, and life satisfaction were used. On the basis of a sample of 345 Jewish religious pray-ers living in Israel it was found that for men all five types of prayer were directly related to life satisfaction. No moderating effects were found. In contrast, for women, although no significant direct relations were found between prayer type and life satisfaction, prayer duration moderated the relation between Supplication, Confession, and Reception with life satisfaction. In addition, significant three-way interactions (Prayer Type × Prayer Duration × Prayer Belief) were found for all five types of prayer. For women with a high belief in prayer, a positive prayer—well-being relation emerged when prayer duration was long, and a negative prayer—well-being relation emerged when prayer duration was short. In contrast, for women with a low belief in prayer, the opposite pattern emerged; lengthy prayer was negatively related to well-being, whereas short prayer was positively related to well-being. An explanation based on self-attributions of prayer sincerity is offered.     

Say one for me: the implicit religion of prayers from the street

Within the field of the psychology of prayer, there has been a growing interest in empirical studies concerned with the analysis of the content of ordinary people's private prayers, with a view to providing a more nuanced understanding of the psychological correlates of prayer among those who engage in the activity. One research tradition has focused on the content analysis of intercessory prayer requests left in church-related settings, and it is within this context that the present study is located, examining 417 intercessory prayer requests, collected on the streets by bishops in the Church of England as part of the 2011 “Say One for Me” Lent Prayer initiative. The study was informed by the constructs of implicit religion and ordinary theology, and employed ap Siôn's general analytical framework for intercessory prayer requests. Three types of implicit religion were found to be present in the prayer content: societal consensus, the source of explicit religion, and the effect of explicit religion, and the significance of these results is discussed.     

Invitation to the Triune Conversation: Explorations of Prayer through the Theology of Robert Jenson

This paper attempts to contribute to our understanding of prayer through an engagement with its crucial role in the systematic thought of Robert Jenson. I present prayer as our invitation to the triune conversation. Developing some of Jenson's categories, I work to show that a Christian understanding of prayer connects to a spectrum of systematic loci, especially creation and anthropology, the sacraments and ecclesiology, mission and eschatology. In these three modes, the anthropological, the ecclesial and the eschatological, prayer enters into the ultimate conversation that animates the world through faith, love and hope. This paper concludes by arguing that such an account of prayer, if authentic, supports a contemporary retrieval of the cataphatic dimension of theology.     

Talking to God Among a Cloud of Witnesses: Collective Prayer as a Meaningful Performance

There has been much work on the effects that individual prayer has on a variety of social‐psychological indicators, yet there remains a lack of research on collective prayer. While it is tempting to assume that collective prayer may be analyzed as the aggregate of individual prayers, the research presented in this article suggests that worshipers pray differently when in community than when by themselves. To understand the role of collective prayer in the practices of faith communities, I draw on work on group culture and ritual to create a framework for analyzing collective prayer. I assert that collective prayer represents a meaningful social performance that locates those conducting it within wider fields of meaning. I conclude with suggestions for future work, including examining how collective prayer acts as an element of conflict as well as unity.     

SPIRITUAL TRANSFORMATION,HEALING, AND ALTRUISM: INTRODUCTION TO THE SYMPOSIUM

This essay introduces the five articles that follow, whose aim is to show how altruism emerges out of spiritual transformation and is integral to healing process in four kinds of ritual healing systems—popular, folk, an indigenous religious healing tradition, and complementary and alternative medicine represented by consciousness transformation movements. In this introduction I situate these largely marginalized religious and spiritual practices within the context of the religion‐science discourse, which has focused for the most part on the relationship between the established, mainstream religions and the dominant biomedical system. Antecedents of two of these types of religious practices, Spiritism and consciousness transformation movements, were part of the development of the psychological sciences in the nineteenth century but lost ground in the twentieth. Despite discrimination and persistent negative attitudes on the part of the established religions and biomedicine, these healing traditions have not only survived through the twentieth century but appear to have gained both followers and interest in the twenty‐first. In future decades, at least for complementary and alternative medical practices and perhaps also for spirit healing centers, there may be a reversal in status through greater acceptance of their unique combination of scientific and religious perspectives.     

Prayer Behavior in Rural Kilimanjaro,Tanzania

Theories and empirical evidence regarding prayer behavior generally emerge from studies of survey respondents in developed countries. The research we describe here adds to the literature by exploring links between demographic characteristics and the frequency and content of prayers for respondents in rural Tanzania. We surveyed 349 Christian households from six villages in the country's Kilimanjaro region. In some aspects our findings match results from survey research conducted elsewhere, and in other aspects our results differ from those commonly reported in the literature. We suggest that local cultural and socioeconomic conditions may account for the differences in outcomes. These results suggest a need for caution in applying to poor countries theories and expectations drawn from the developed country context.