Analyzing Prayer: Theological and Philosophical Essays (Oxford Studies in Analytic Theology)

✍ Scribed by Oliver D. Crisp (editor), James M. Arcadi (editor), Jordan Wessling (editor)

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Year: 2022
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 234
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Analyzing Prayer draws together a range of theologians and philosophers to deal with different approaches to prayer as a Christian practice. The essays included deal with issues pertaining to petitionary prayer, prayer as reorientation of oneself in the presence of God, prayer by those who do not believe, liturgical prayer, mystical prayer, whether God prays, the interrelation between prayer and various forms of knowledge, theologizing as a form of prayer, lament and prayer, prayer and God's presence, and even prayer and the meaning of life. The volume contains cutting-edge studies on a neglected topic of theological study that contributes to the broadening of themes tackled by analytic theology.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Analyzing Prayer: Theological and Philosophical Essays
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Contributors
Introduction
Overview of the Chapters
A word of thanks
1: Petitionary Prayer and Pride
Pride in General
Answered Petitionary Prayer
Pride and Prayer: The Question
Epistemology
A Humean Conjecture
2: Interceding for the Lost: On the Effectiveness of Petitioning God for the Salvation of Others
The Extended-CharityDefense of Petitions
A Defense of the Extended-CharityDefense
Summary
The Extended-CharityDefense of Intercessions
Conclusion
3: Are You There, God? It’s Me, the Theist: On the Viability and Virtue of Non-Doxastic Prayer
Introduction
A Working Definition of Theistic Prayer
Forms and Functions of Theistic Prayer
Contemplative Prayer: Oratio quaerens intellectum
Ritualized Prayer: Orientation, Affirmation, and “Being For”
Personal Prayer: Forging Intimacy
“I and Thou”: Commitment, Imagination, and Prayerful Pretense
Conclusion: The Virtues of Suspension
4: Praying in the Name of Christ: Friedrich Schleiermacher’s “Mystical” Account of Prayer
Introduction: An Analytic Theology of Prayer
Prayer and Method
Prayer “From Below”
Prayer “From Above”
A Third Way: Schleiermacher’s Alternative Method
The “Mystical” Account of Prayer
Schleiermacher’s Sermon on Prayer
Schleiermacher’s Dogmatic Account of Prayer
Remaining Challenges
Conclusion
5: Prayer as Complaint
Introduction
An Account of Prayer as Complaint
Complaint and Intercession
Two Potential Complications
Coda
6: Toward an Account of Lamenting Well
Introduction
A Brief Sketch of the Nature, and Some Dangers, of Analytic Theology
The Nature of Lament
Scriptural Lament
The Character of Lament
Lament and Hope
Lament as Communal
The Virtue of Lament
Conclusion
7: Theology in the Second Person: Christian Dogmatics as a Mode of Prayer
Introduction
An Ontology of Holy Scripture as Divine Speech
Christian Dogmatics and the Second-PersonPerspective
Karl Barth on Prayerful Dogmatics
Prayer and Theological Habitude
A Concluding Remark to Students of Divinity
8: Does God Pray?
9: Blessing God as Pledge of Allegiance: A Speech-Act Theoretic Approach
Introduction
Speech Act Theory
Further Preliminaries
The Opening Blessing as an Expressive IA
The Opening Blessing as an Expressive IA of Awe
The Opening Blessing as an Expressive IA of “the Optative”
The Opening Blessing as an Assertive IA
Acknowledging that God and God’s Kingdom are Blessed
Acknowledging that God and God’s kingdom are the Minister’s Highest Value
The Opening Blessing as a Commissive IA of Pledging Allegiance
Conclusion
10: Knowing as you are Known: Prayer in the Presence of God
A Distinctively Christian Notion of Prayer
Present by Faith
Struggling in God’s Presence
Application
11: Prayer as the Road to Self-Knowledge
Living on the Surface of Ourselves
Transparency and Alienation
Conclusion
12: Prayer and the Meaning of Life
Criteria of Meaningfulness from Philosophy
Threats to Meaning
Meaning of “Meaning”
Monistic or Amalgam Normativity
Objective and Subjective Meaning
The Christian Meaning-MakingFramework and Prayer
Meaning and Prayer in Conversation with Barth
Prayer and Threats to Meaning
Implications
Conclusion
Index