Comments on Faith and Theology: Why pray?

I used to think prayer was just talking to God so ...

2012-01-13T22:04:41.455-06:00

I used to think prayer was just talking to God so I could never understand how one could pray without ceasing. But it's not talking without ceasing, it's listening without ceasing. Someone once said, "I used to see prayer as a way of getting God to do what I wanted. Now I see it as my way of getting in on what God is doing." The Lord has never told me to talk more, but he's told me to shut up a few times.

I don't believe in god. I think prayer is a w...

2012-01-11T05:04:41.923-06:00

I don't believe in god. I think prayer is a way for people to rationlize what they want and what they want but didn't get. You want to waste your time-that's your business.

Prayers like gravel Flung at the sky's window,...

2012-01-08T03:04:12.495-06:00

Prayers like gravel
Flung at the sky's
window, hoping to attract
the loved one's
attention....

R S Thomas

Wonderful, Ben! It was a real blessing to me this...

2012-01-05T02:31:45.185-06:00

Wonderful, Ben! It was a real blessing to me this morning! You have quite the gift for spiritual writing in the vein of a Merton, Nouwen or Rowan Williams! Cultivate it!

In the paragraph, the images are used to describe ...

2012-01-03T13:51:36.709-06:00

In the paragraph, the images are used to describe a person's posture before God. It is therefore possible to interpret the image in such a way that, I think, avoids your critique: there is a similarity between how a heterosexual male postures himself before a woman's body and how he postures himself before God. God certainly has agency, is not inanimate, is not a Platonic form, is not an object to be apprehended, etc.
In sum, if you take each element of the list (song, mountain, woman), and look its analogy to God, rather than to the other elements of the list, that the sentence does not necessarily imply that women are non-subjects. Does this work?

Apologies Imogen — you're right of course. In ...

2012-01-03T13:45:59.037-06:00

Apologies Imogen — you're right of course. In my draft I tried various words here (like "the body of a spouse", "partner", etc), but it sounded too abstract and impersonal. (And I really wanted the sexual metaphor to be linked to what comes after it — not an inanimate geographical feature, but the glory of God!).

Anyway, this morning I finally thought of the right word: "the body of a lover". That's what I meant to say, but couldn't quite find the right word — so I hope you'll accept this belated modification!

I don't mean objectification in terms of egreg...

2012-01-03T13:25:33.994-06:00

I don't mean objectification in terms of egregious sexual objectification, but in terms of referring to a woman as if she is not a subject. When a list includes an inanimate geographical feature, an abstract artistic form, and the mythical absolute notion of a woman's body as similar items, I consider that objectifying.

Women are not abstractions, a woman is not a Platonic form, and more importantly, women pray the same as persons of any other gender. By using 'the body of a woman' as an object in a metaphor about prayer, Ben is implicitly excluding a woman from being the praying subject. He is assuming that his audience are (heterosexual) men, and he is reducing a female body's existence to its relationship to a subject who 'loves' it. It is not the absolute destiny of a female body 'to be loved', because women are human beings with agency over their bodies.

I doubt there was any adverse intention behind the metaphor, but it does treat women as implicitly non-subjects and significantly marred my enjoyment of the post.

Number 8, in particular, spoke to me. Prayer is t...

2012-01-03T06:59:29.390-06:00

Number 8, in particular, spoke to me. Prayer is the single candle that the darkness doesn't overcome. The church I attended as a child and youth had a little tag line at the top of the bulletin - Enter in Prayer. Stay in Prayer. Leave in Prayer. That and Paul's admonition to pray without ceasing have been watchwords of my life; I try, in contemporary parlance, to keep a line open throughout my day, a little silent dialogue that helps keep me grounded.

I didn't think so. I took it as intimate and p...

2012-01-02T19:18:44.937-06:00

I didn't think so. I took it as intimate and personal, not objectifying.

And there you have a basic spirituality far richer...

2012-01-02T17:15:06.080-06:00

And there you have a basic spirituality far richer than you will here in even a lifetime of attending some churches. http://goo.gl/pqJxe

Excellent, though rather marred by the inclusion o...

2012-01-02T16:12:30.722-06:00

Excellent, though rather marred by the inclusion of women as objects to be apprehended rather than agents who also pray.

nourishment, thanks.

2012-01-02T13:49:54.250-06:00

nourishment, thanks.

All my life I was asleep within myself, but when I...

2012-01-02T06:06:35.985-06:00

All my life I was asleep within myself, but when I bowed my head to pray I opened my eyes to the glory of God.

Because without prayer there is only – myself.

I love these two lines. Sometimes I wonder the question that forms the title of the post. Why pray? What an excellent list of reasons!!

10 excellent reasons.

2012-01-01T23:12:09.767-06:00

10 excellent reasons.

Simple and transcendent. Thank you for sharing you...

2012-01-01T19:57:24.262-06:00

Simple and transcendent. Thank you for sharing your heart.