Prayer

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by RK (talk | contribs) at 04:04, 9 January 2002 (The biblical view of prayer). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Jump to navigation Jump to search

Prayer is the religious act of communicating with God (for monotheists) or the gods (for polytheists).


The existence of prayer is attested to in written sources as early as 5000 years ago; anthropologists believe that the earliest intelligent humans engaged in some sort of activity that we today would recognize as prayer.


The Biblical views of prayer

In the Tanach (Hebrew Bible, aka Old Testament) various forms of prayer appear, but the most common form is petition. This in mnay ways is the simplest form of prayer. Some have termed this the social approach: In this view, a person really does really does confront God in prayer, and asks for their needs to be fulfilled; God really does listen to prayer. This is the primary approach to prayer found in the Tanach, most of the Church writings, the Talmud and most modern day prayerbooks by monotheistic religios,


Reference


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



= Philosophical re-interpretations of prayer

Both theologians and religious anthropologists note that there are many types of prayer. Four of the most basic types of prayer are thanksgiving to God, confession of one's sins, praise of one's God, and petitioning God for help or to fulfill our needs.



The philosophical paradoxes of prayer

There are a number of philosophical paradoxes involving prayer to an omnipotent God, namely:


  • If a person deserves God to give him the thing he prays for, why doesn't God give it to him, 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 God know the thoughts of all people?


  • If God is omniscient (all-knowing) then doesn't God know what we are going to ask Him for even before we pray?


  • How can a human being hope to change God's mind? Why should human prayers affect God's decisions?


  • Do human beings actually have the ability to praise an omniscient and omnipotent God? Praise God is difficult to do without describing God, yet how can a finite human being know anything about God's ultimate nature? This question was the subject of heated debate among many religious philosophers.





/Talk


Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Prayer&oldid=276461"