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Prayer and Modern Man
Focuses on those aspects of modern society which have alienated man from God, and establishes a foundation for prayer in contemporary life
178 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1970
8 people are currently reading
142 people want to read
About the author
Jacques Ellul
118 books441 followersBaptised Catholic, Ellul became an atheist and Marxist at 19, and a Christian of the Reformed Church at 22. During his Marxist days, he was a member of the French Communist Party. During World War II, he fought with the French Underground against the Nazi occupation of France.
Educated at the Universities of Bordeaux and Paris, he taught Sociology and the History of Law at the Universities of Strausbourg and Montpellier. In 1946 he returned to Bordeaux where he lived, wrote, served as Mayor, and taught until his death in 1994.
In the 40 books and hundreds of articles Ellul wrote in his lifetime, his dominant theme was always the threat to human freedom posed by modern technology. His tenor and methodology is objective and scholarly, and the perspective is a sociological one. Few of his books are overtly political -- even though they deal directly with political phenomena -- and several of his books, including "Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes" and "The Technological Society" are required reading in many graduate communication curricula.
Ellul was also a respected and serious Christian theologian whose 1948 work, "The Presence of the Kingdom," makes explicit a dual theme inherent, though subtly stated, in all of his writing, a sort of yin and yang of modern technological society: sin and sacramentality.
Educated at the Universities of Bordeaux and Paris, he taught Sociology and the History of Law at the Universities of Strausbourg and Montpellier. In 1946 he returned to Bordeaux where he lived, wrote, served as Mayor, and taught until his death in 1994.
In the 40 books and hundreds of articles Ellul wrote in his lifetime, his dominant theme was always the threat to human freedom posed by modern technology. His tenor and methodology is objective and scholarly, and the perspective is a sociological one. Few of his books are overtly political -- even though they deal directly with political phenomena -- and several of his books, including "Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes" and "The Technological Society" are required reading in many graduate communication curricula.
Ellul was also a respected and serious Christian theologian whose 1948 work, "The Presence of the Kingdom," makes explicit a dual theme inherent, though subtly stated, in all of his writing, a sort of yin and yang of modern technological society: sin and sacramentality.
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August 22, 2023
The author is blunt in his contention that most prayer, at least the kind that seeks some benefit, is formulaic and insincere. That is the reason that moderns are praying less and less. In a technological society problems such as suffering, hunger, injustice , are theoretically solvable so there is no need for prayer. As critics point out, “answers” to prayers are ones that would have come about anyway without any prayer.
What, then, is the point of writing a book about prayer? In a sense Ellul is redefining prayer. For him, it has to be a “prayer of faith,” one that has to be continued even when there are are no results, only discouragement. Man prays because God commands him to pray. Not arbitrarily, but because praying is in the natural order of things. Ellul writes, “Prayer is the begetting of the future. It is not there to complete a past nor to assure a present. It is there to realize a future, to assure the possibility of a new history.”
Prayer for Ellul means a “radical trust” in that future, to the point of absurdity. It is a matter of watchfulness and discipline, of staring into an always “silent night” as if we were blind, blind in the sense that no comfort of intellect or feelings is necessarily available to us.
Examples of successful prayer can be found in the Bible. He points out that Abraham, Moses, Davd, Solomon, all of the prophets, and especially Jesus, give us models of prayer in which the substance of prayer is always to be lived in reality. Prayer is more than just words. We have to continue to pray even when every thing is discouraging. That is the meaning of the Biblical injunction to “pray always.”
An example of prayer, and the lack of it, occurs in the Garden of Gethsemane when the disciples are sleeping while Christ is praying. They have succumbed to indifference alienation, fatigue, as if they no longer had any obligation to commit themselves to that “begetting” of the future that Christ embodied, not just in his words but in his sacrificial actions.
The Biblical image for nothingness is the serpent, and even more marked, the eleviathan, always ready to swallow up reality and obliterate it. Jonah manages to escape, and although Ellul doesn’t mention this, his escape results in actions that could only be called prayerful and accomplish some good.
In the end, then, prayer is a combat against death and meaninglessness, and in these terms, Ellul makes a good case for the relevance and worth of prayer.
What, then, is the point of writing a book about prayer? In a sense Ellul is redefining prayer. For him, it has to be a “prayer of faith,” one that has to be continued even when there are are no results, only discouragement. Man prays because God commands him to pray. Not arbitrarily, but because praying is in the natural order of things. Ellul writes, “Prayer is the begetting of the future. It is not there to complete a past nor to assure a present. It is there to realize a future, to assure the possibility of a new history.”
Prayer for Ellul means a “radical trust” in that future, to the point of absurdity. It is a matter of watchfulness and discipline, of staring into an always “silent night” as if we were blind, blind in the sense that no comfort of intellect or feelings is necessarily available to us.
Examples of successful prayer can be found in the Bible. He points out that Abraham, Moses, Davd, Solomon, all of the prophets, and especially Jesus, give us models of prayer in which the substance of prayer is always to be lived in reality. Prayer is more than just words. We have to continue to pray even when every thing is discouraging. That is the meaning of the Biblical injunction to “pray always.”
An example of prayer, and the lack of it, occurs in the Garden of Gethsemane when the disciples are sleeping while Christ is praying. They have succumbed to indifference alienation, fatigue, as if they no longer had any obligation to commit themselves to that “begetting” of the future that Christ embodied, not just in his words but in his sacrificial actions.
The Biblical image for nothingness is the serpent, and even more marked, the eleviathan, always ready to swallow up reality and obliterate it. Jonah manages to escape, and although Ellul doesn’t mention this, his escape results in actions that could only be called prayerful and accomplish some good.
In the end, then, prayer is a combat against death and meaninglessness, and in these terms, Ellul makes a good case for the relevance and worth of prayer.
June 22, 2010
This book is dated in places as Ellul relates to the modern at the time he first wrote (1970). But modern ideas about the efficiency and efficacy of prayer that Ellul responds to remain part of modern thinking and his radical understanding of the place and power of prayer continue to shake up my own thinking.
The first chapter, "Intimate and Reassuring Views of Prayer" attacks the sentimental, the official, the frenetic. For Ellul "prayer is precisely not a means of laying hold of God." It is not a system, a way to get ahold of someone living at a distance, but a miracle to reach the one who is always close at hand. He reminds that too often saying "thy will be done," is a statement of sloth, impotence and cowardice, not of humility. It easily becomes a prayer seeking convenience, not obedience.
The second and the third chapters are tied to the thinking of his place and time, but chapter four comes back with a vengeance on practice. "Prayer is not an affair of the moment. It is the continuous woof on which is woven the warp of my occupations, my sentiments, my actions. The warp without that woof will never constitute a whole, a pattern, and the tissue of life will never be woven. We will, in fact, give way to every solicitation. Without prayer we are like children carried away by every wind of doctrine." The entire chapter is a challenge to watch and pray, with the former only possible because of the latter.
The final chapter, "Prayer as Combat", is the most remarkable. He reminds western Christians how deeply they have bought into consumption, turning even prayer into a consumer activity. "Finally, prayer can display a quality of acquisition, which also is related to consumption. We talk of having faith, of having the Holy Spirit, not of living in and by faith, of receiving and being sent forth by the Holy Spirit. We are automatically oriented by our society in this direction of appropriation." Discussing the Lord's Prayer in this context, "We can say that the model furnished by Jesus is the anti-consumer prayer par excellence. It is centered on God's needs, not ours."
This "review" is breaking down into straight quotations of this wonderful and challenging text. "We never dare enough in petitioning God, in putting him to the test of what he can do (and of what he has already wanted to do, since we have the promise). It is not resorting to magic or uncivilized to demand something of God, as when Elijah asked that the sacrificial victims be burned, or when Jesus asked that the fruitless fig tree wither. It is, rather, the audacity of knowing that God can do that, and of committing oneself to asking him. It is a commitment of the self, because what a blow it is if God remains silent! ... If our prayers are prudent and empty, that is because we have become incapable of putting God to the test. We are afraid of risking our reputations."
For Ellul prayer is a striving with God, but it is also the only source of our hope, our connection with the eschaton and our chance to direct history. He has no small idea of the place of prayer and in that he is speaking distinctly against our technological and consumerist society.
"Prayer for society puts the latter in its place. In spite of all its strength and technical successes, its scientific excellence and its "great society," it is a poor little commonplace, transitory reality, for which it is absolutely necessary to pray. Without that persistent prayer, this grandiose society will soon be nothing but a frenzy of pride and suicide."
Not a book for everyone, but one that keeps shocking me with every rereading, making me dare more in prayer.
The first chapter, "Intimate and Reassuring Views of Prayer" attacks the sentimental, the official, the frenetic. For Ellul "prayer is precisely not a means of laying hold of God." It is not a system, a way to get ahold of someone living at a distance, but a miracle to reach the one who is always close at hand. He reminds that too often saying "thy will be done," is a statement of sloth, impotence and cowardice, not of humility. It easily becomes a prayer seeking convenience, not obedience.
The second and the third chapters are tied to the thinking of his place and time, but chapter four comes back with a vengeance on practice. "Prayer is not an affair of the moment. It is the continuous woof on which is woven the warp of my occupations, my sentiments, my actions. The warp without that woof will never constitute a whole, a pattern, and the tissue of life will never be woven. We will, in fact, give way to every solicitation. Without prayer we are like children carried away by every wind of doctrine." The entire chapter is a challenge to watch and pray, with the former only possible because of the latter.
The final chapter, "Prayer as Combat", is the most remarkable. He reminds western Christians how deeply they have bought into consumption, turning even prayer into a consumer activity. "Finally, prayer can display a quality of acquisition, which also is related to consumption. We talk of having faith, of having the Holy Spirit, not of living in and by faith, of receiving and being sent forth by the Holy Spirit. We are automatically oriented by our society in this direction of appropriation." Discussing the Lord's Prayer in this context, "We can say that the model furnished by Jesus is the anti-consumer prayer par excellence. It is centered on God's needs, not ours."
This "review" is breaking down into straight quotations of this wonderful and challenging text. "We never dare enough in petitioning God, in putting him to the test of what he can do (and of what he has already wanted to do, since we have the promise). It is not resorting to magic or uncivilized to demand something of God, as when Elijah asked that the sacrificial victims be burned, or when Jesus asked that the fruitless fig tree wither. It is, rather, the audacity of knowing that God can do that, and of committing oneself to asking him. It is a commitment of the self, because what a blow it is if God remains silent! ... If our prayers are prudent and empty, that is because we have become incapable of putting God to the test. We are afraid of risking our reputations."
For Ellul prayer is a striving with God, but it is also the only source of our hope, our connection with the eschaton and our chance to direct history. He has no small idea of the place of prayer and in that he is speaking distinctly against our technological and consumerist society.
"Prayer for society puts the latter in its place. In spite of all its strength and technical successes, its scientific excellence and its "great society," it is a poor little commonplace, transitory reality, for which it is absolutely necessary to pray. Without that persistent prayer, this grandiose society will soon be nothing but a frenzy of pride and suicide."
Not a book for everyone, but one that keeps shocking me with every rereading, making me dare more in prayer.
June 20, 2020
Intimate and Reassuring Views of Prayer
Ellul goes through a wide variety of different images, ideas, and attitudes to prayer that people held in his context. Some of these are more unique to his French European heritage, but many of them are held by people in our churches in America. Some of the criticisms are well put, and others are intriguing yet frustratingly short. Throughout it all Ellul shows a powerful and insightful mind, and one who is not slow to call out harshly practices or ideas he disagrees with. Jacques Ellul is not a man to mince words! I noted several times he called a particular practice demonic, e.g., on dancing prayer "Here again, we are obliged to point out that this is the same phenomenon as that which characterized the whirling dervishes, shamanism, etc., and that to attach the name of Jesus Christ to it is simply demonic."
Many of the views on prayer Ellul finds elements of truth in them, though he seems skeptical that they are producing true prayer frequently anymore. An example of this is the Angelus prayer. This was a prayer instituted by the Catholic countries where 3 times a day the average person would stop where they are and what they were doing and pray. He sees value in liturgical prayers, and he affirms that this prayer requires a separation of work to pray. And having reminders at set times to pray can also be a good habit. All of these Ellul will affirm as having some elements of true prayer. But overall, the Angelus prayer has more problems associated with it than positives. We do not have to look hard to see how the Angelus pray can and has turned into many vain repetitions which Jesus warned us against. A reminder of prayer can be good, but an obligatory prayer can turn quickly into a mere formality and lose the sense of urgency and seriousness needed to be brought to prayer.
Each of the views of prayer that Ellul lists he considers this way. Some sections are longer than others, but all contain an analysis of the different intimate and reassuring views of prayer. In this section, Ellul says and shows that modern man, and he includes himself, does not know how to pray. He speaks a mere formality, or he asks for God to use him instead of God himself acting, or he prays only to get a religious high like all other religious prayer.
The Fragile Foundations of Prayer
On what basis should modern man pray? He can scarcely believe in prayer because of the reasons given in the previous chapter. Is there anyway this problem can be solved? How can we get the man who doesn't pray to pray? To answer this question, Ellul considers three different approaches to the problem and then criticizes each approach and shows why they are inadequate: the natural foundation, the religious foundation, and prayer as language.
The natural foundation for prayer bases prayer off of our natural fears and desires. All people pray, and we are naturally wired to pray. In addition, prayer has mental health benefits as well. Prayer has a natural cleansing and therapeutic function. By talking about our problems and verbalizing them, we open ourselves to receive comfort or healing. In addition, prayer often includes silence and meditation, both of which are good for our mental and spiritual health.
The problem with the therapeutic function of prayer is that if prayer is a procedure used for health then prayer will someday be outdated. Because prayer was useful in the past does not mean it retains its value in the future. Why would man pray if the only reasons are therapeutic? Better cures exist for him in modern medicine and society. If prayer is merely natural, then prayer has fulfilled its role and man has no more need of it.
What about a theological justification for prayer? If nature can't provide us with a stable foundation, how about theological thought?
Theology can provide us with wonderful and profound truths about prayer. It can teach us that God is with us and that prayer is "God inserting man's initiative into the divine plan." Theology can teach us that God established prayer to communicate causality and to teach us about God. Theology can reassure us of what happens when we pray. Theology can teach us many wonderful elements of prayer. But ultimately theology cannot provide a rationale for man to pray. What good is the idea of prayer teaching us about causality when our modern understanding of causality has already been stripped of God? What good is the idea of prayer as living with God if this is a reality completely foreign to man? Theology can help the believer who already prays, but the lifestyle of the modern man makes him inoculated to what theology has to say.
Perhaps the problem of prayer is an issue of vocabulary then? Maybe theology is inadequate because the words we are using are meaningless to modern man. Maybe people need to relearn a language about prayer or what it means to be prayer. Then prayer will be revitalized and modern man will again turn to prayer because he will finally be able to pray with vitality and freshness in a language he understands.
Ellul reserves his harshest criticisms for this attempt to salvage prayer. The problems with this idea are several, but the most significant problem is that prayer isn't merely verbal. We often see prayer overflowing the spoken word. Incense, bells, dance, and gestures are all types of prayer in the bible. These examples of prayer all point to the reality of prayer. Prayer is not a discourse which can be solved by words. If the problem of prayer was a problem of communication, then language could step in to help. But prayer is addressed to God and is beyond our grasp. Prayer takes place on a different plane than normal human talk. Prayer is "a form of life, the life with God." Once we have reduced prayer to a mere discourse instead of a gift which depends entirely upon God we have arrived face to face with our problem. Prayer started disappearing once prayer was reduced to a purely verbal operation. The church (Protestant church I might add) is responsible for the false understanding which leads to the tragedy of man not being able to pray.
The Reasons for Not Praying
Modern man does not pray. He is not tempted to pray, and the less he prays the harder it gets to pray. Prayer seems a waste of time, laughable, unjustifiable, pitiable, and for the immature. Modern man not only does not pray, he can find no valid reason to pray. He is justified in his lack of prayer by both sociology and theology.
The modern world is increasingly secularized, making mans instinctive, natural desire for prayer diminish and ultimately disappear. The natural impulse to pray is dying off in our desacralized world.
Realism and skepticism, as the two prevailing philosophies for the average man, also turn us away from prayer. Realism only believes that which is useful, and skepticism teaches us to doubt everything including the power of prayer and the historicity of the gospel accounts. Modern sociology has shown that those who pray receive what they ask for as often as those who don't, removing prayer as a useful tool for achieving any end. If we are to take prayer seriously, then prayer would need to bring about the promised results. Since prayer doesn't bring about the results we want, we have no practical reason to pray. In addition, we no longer have the need to pray for much that we used to. We no longer need to pray for healing from polio as we have a vaccine for that. What need have we to pray for healing when a cure exists or will soon exist? To call on God is superfluous. We choose what has been proven to be effective. We do not rely upon the Lord. The results can come perfectly well without any need to pray. Man has no need for prayer when technique can give him the results he needs better and more efficiently than any prayer.
Prayer is also unneccesary to do good for the modern man. Having been taught that he is able to understand what is good and evil through his intellect and he is able to choose freely what to do, what need has man of prayer? It is superfluous and unnecessary. Only when we acknowledge that we are not free to choose the good or evil equally, but that our wills are bound and we have a cancerous tumor inside us which hinders us. Only when we acknowledge this are we able to pray, but modern man does not think this way and so he does not pray.
Sociology is not the only place man can turn to find his lack of prayer explained. Theology attempts to explain and justifying it as well. The justifications are twofold. The first school of thought teaches that man has not come of age, and as such he need pray no more. Prayer made sense when man lived in an age of scarcity, but now that man lives in a world of abundance he can cast off his infantile ways and relate to God on his own terms without needing to rely upon him for anything. Genuine love now binds man to God because man does not turn to God expecting anything, but turns freely out of love. The second school of thought ultimately teaches us that God is dead. And if God is dead, then we have no need to pray to him. Of course prayer is meaningless for who are you going to pray to? Intellectual justification of the highest order and by the brightest minds results in plenty of reasons for man not to pray. Is there any reason then why man should pray?
The Only Reason for Praying
All of the reasons given by modern man justify his lack of prayer. No natural reason to pray is left for man. The only reason for man to pray then is because he is commanded to pray. No other reason will suffice.
A commandment is different than a law. A law is external, eternal, perpetual. A law must always be obeyed regardless of circumstance. A law is for everyone everywhere. Commandment is the reverse of this. A commandment is a personal word addressed to me. A commandment is when a superior expresses their will to the one who should obey. Unlike a law, a commandment does not apply to everyone everywhere. Prayer is a commandment given by God, not a law. The command to pray applies to every generation even though they weren't addressed to us. The situation of those who wrote about prayer in the bible is our situation as well. The command to pray is a command for us still today provided we hear that God is speaking and obey.
Obedience to the command is the only motivation humans need or will get. Obedience is not an obligation but the free choice of an individual. Obedience is free, not under compulsion. Obedience is never easy, and obedience involves our whole body rebelling against the obstacles to prayer. Obedience to the call to pray is about how we live our lives as well as our words. Obedience to the command to pray entails obedience to not be conformed to the world as well. We must take the command and our obedience with radical seriousness. We must obey in faith, for if we obey otherwise we are not truly praying.
True prayer must always be vigilant as well. Prayer must be vigilant to the political situation of the world. Prayer must be attentive to the factors which affect man in the world. This will require knowing the ways of the world in order to pray against them, a theme developed in length in Ellul's The Presence of the Kingdom.
Prayer must also be vigilant in waiting for Christs return. True prayer is eschatological and must be prayer in combat.
Prayer as Combat
This is perhaps Ellul's richest chapter of the book, filled with exhortations, scriptural insights, and a spiritual clarity which gets to the core of prayer. This chapter has three different focuses. Prayer in a time of abandonment, combat against God, and the act of hope. These three sections all tie together to give us an understanding of prayer as combat.
Prayer in a time of abandonment is prayer in the situation Ellul has laid out here (and I would also guess his sociological works). Given the seeming state of abandonment by God, prayer is a combat against ourselves. We have nothing pushing us to pray, yet we are still commanded to pray regardless.
Prayer is also a combat against God. Ellul makes much usage of Israel wrestling with God. This is the way he prefers to think about prayer. Prayer is a wrestling with God to come and act, but prayer is dangerous, and we should not be deceived otherwise. We should not pray unless we are willing to suffer for what we are praying for. God will often take a toll from us when we are truly interceding for and wrestling for others. For Ellul, true prayer is not opposed to action. The dichotomy between prayer and action is a false one. But prayer is more important than action. Prayer can lead to action, but prayer must always precede any action. To act without praying will always and ultimately lead to violence. We can never forget that we live in a world dominated by principalites and powers, and our struggle is against them. Politics, social action, and reforms are not our primary ways of combating these enemies. We have been given spiritual armor, and the most important of all that armor is prayer in the Spirit. We live in an age where action is highly prized and to retreat to a room to pray is viewed as of secondary importance by most (inside and outside the church). This makes the act of praying a more subversive and important act in our time than in past times.
To pray is finally an act of hope. This is because prayer is always eschatological. True prayer starts with "Our Father" and ends with "Come, Lord Jesus." Thus, the kingdom and the return of Christ are a necessary part of any prayer.
Analysis
Jacques Ellul is writing in a different spiritual climate than I live in. France is much less religious than America. Prayer is still a normal part of life for many people here, especially in the bible belt. We may be a nation of heretics, but we are still religious. Several of the problems Ellul faces are the problems we are facing. But I do think the underlying problem is still the same, even if not to the same extent. Functionally, we don't believe that prayer works and we are far more committed to action than devoting ourselves to prayer. We don't share France's lack of faith, but we do share their lack of commitment to prayer, and we surpass them in a reliance upon technique. This book then is incredibly insightful for my context as well as Ellul's.
The most challenging and insightful of all chapters was his final chapter on prayer as combat. This is an interesting read during the global coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing racial unrest. I don't have to go very far to find Christians who say they are "tired of people praying, they want them to act." This statement comes out of frustrations with white moderates going back centuries, but most clearly to Dr. Martin Luther King's speeches. The frustration with the lack of action is understandable, but the lack of belief in prayer is also revealing. If Ellul is right, and I think he is, then any call to action
Ellul goes through a wide variety of different images, ideas, and attitudes to prayer that people held in his context. Some of these are more unique to his French European heritage, but many of them are held by people in our churches in America. Some of the criticisms are well put, and others are intriguing yet frustratingly short. Throughout it all Ellul shows a powerful and insightful mind, and one who is not slow to call out harshly practices or ideas he disagrees with. Jacques Ellul is not a man to mince words! I noted several times he called a particular practice demonic, e.g., on dancing prayer "Here again, we are obliged to point out that this is the same phenomenon as that which characterized the whirling dervishes, shamanism, etc., and that to attach the name of Jesus Christ to it is simply demonic."
Many of the views on prayer Ellul finds elements of truth in them, though he seems skeptical that they are producing true prayer frequently anymore. An example of this is the Angelus prayer. This was a prayer instituted by the Catholic countries where 3 times a day the average person would stop where they are and what they were doing and pray. He sees value in liturgical prayers, and he affirms that this prayer requires a separation of work to pray. And having reminders at set times to pray can also be a good habit. All of these Ellul will affirm as having some elements of true prayer. But overall, the Angelus prayer has more problems associated with it than positives. We do not have to look hard to see how the Angelus pray can and has turned into many vain repetitions which Jesus warned us against. A reminder of prayer can be good, but an obligatory prayer can turn quickly into a mere formality and lose the sense of urgency and seriousness needed to be brought to prayer.
Each of the views of prayer that Ellul lists he considers this way. Some sections are longer than others, but all contain an analysis of the different intimate and reassuring views of prayer. In this section, Ellul says and shows that modern man, and he includes himself, does not know how to pray. He speaks a mere formality, or he asks for God to use him instead of God himself acting, or he prays only to get a religious high like all other religious prayer.
The Fragile Foundations of Prayer
On what basis should modern man pray? He can scarcely believe in prayer because of the reasons given in the previous chapter. Is there anyway this problem can be solved? How can we get the man who doesn't pray to pray? To answer this question, Ellul considers three different approaches to the problem and then criticizes each approach and shows why they are inadequate: the natural foundation, the religious foundation, and prayer as language.
The natural foundation for prayer bases prayer off of our natural fears and desires. All people pray, and we are naturally wired to pray. In addition, prayer has mental health benefits as well. Prayer has a natural cleansing and therapeutic function. By talking about our problems and verbalizing them, we open ourselves to receive comfort or healing. In addition, prayer often includes silence and meditation, both of which are good for our mental and spiritual health.
The problem with the therapeutic function of prayer is that if prayer is a procedure used for health then prayer will someday be outdated. Because prayer was useful in the past does not mean it retains its value in the future. Why would man pray if the only reasons are therapeutic? Better cures exist for him in modern medicine and society. If prayer is merely natural, then prayer has fulfilled its role and man has no more need of it.
What about a theological justification for prayer? If nature can't provide us with a stable foundation, how about theological thought?
Theology can provide us with wonderful and profound truths about prayer. It can teach us that God is with us and that prayer is "God inserting man's initiative into the divine plan." Theology can teach us that God established prayer to communicate causality and to teach us about God. Theology can reassure us of what happens when we pray. Theology can teach us many wonderful elements of prayer. But ultimately theology cannot provide a rationale for man to pray. What good is the idea of prayer teaching us about causality when our modern understanding of causality has already been stripped of God? What good is the idea of prayer as living with God if this is a reality completely foreign to man? Theology can help the believer who already prays, but the lifestyle of the modern man makes him inoculated to what theology has to say.
Perhaps the problem of prayer is an issue of vocabulary then? Maybe theology is inadequate because the words we are using are meaningless to modern man. Maybe people need to relearn a language about prayer or what it means to be prayer. Then prayer will be revitalized and modern man will again turn to prayer because he will finally be able to pray with vitality and freshness in a language he understands.
Ellul reserves his harshest criticisms for this attempt to salvage prayer. The problems with this idea are several, but the most significant problem is that prayer isn't merely verbal. We often see prayer overflowing the spoken word. Incense, bells, dance, and gestures are all types of prayer in the bible. These examples of prayer all point to the reality of prayer. Prayer is not a discourse which can be solved by words. If the problem of prayer was a problem of communication, then language could step in to help. But prayer is addressed to God and is beyond our grasp. Prayer takes place on a different plane than normal human talk. Prayer is "a form of life, the life with God." Once we have reduced prayer to a mere discourse instead of a gift which depends entirely upon God we have arrived face to face with our problem. Prayer started disappearing once prayer was reduced to a purely verbal operation. The church (Protestant church I might add) is responsible for the false understanding which leads to the tragedy of man not being able to pray.
The Reasons for Not Praying
Modern man does not pray. He is not tempted to pray, and the less he prays the harder it gets to pray. Prayer seems a waste of time, laughable, unjustifiable, pitiable, and for the immature. Modern man not only does not pray, he can find no valid reason to pray. He is justified in his lack of prayer by both sociology and theology.
The modern world is increasingly secularized, making mans instinctive, natural desire for prayer diminish and ultimately disappear. The natural impulse to pray is dying off in our desacralized world.
Realism and skepticism, as the two prevailing philosophies for the average man, also turn us away from prayer. Realism only believes that which is useful, and skepticism teaches us to doubt everything including the power of prayer and the historicity of the gospel accounts. Modern sociology has shown that those who pray receive what they ask for as often as those who don't, removing prayer as a useful tool for achieving any end. If we are to take prayer seriously, then prayer would need to bring about the promised results. Since prayer doesn't bring about the results we want, we have no practical reason to pray. In addition, we no longer have the need to pray for much that we used to. We no longer need to pray for healing from polio as we have a vaccine for that. What need have we to pray for healing when a cure exists or will soon exist? To call on God is superfluous. We choose what has been proven to be effective. We do not rely upon the Lord. The results can come perfectly well without any need to pray. Man has no need for prayer when technique can give him the results he needs better and more efficiently than any prayer.
Prayer is also unneccesary to do good for the modern man. Having been taught that he is able to understand what is good and evil through his intellect and he is able to choose freely what to do, what need has man of prayer? It is superfluous and unnecessary. Only when we acknowledge that we are not free to choose the good or evil equally, but that our wills are bound and we have a cancerous tumor inside us which hinders us. Only when we acknowledge this are we able to pray, but modern man does not think this way and so he does not pray.
Sociology is not the only place man can turn to find his lack of prayer explained. Theology attempts to explain and justifying it as well. The justifications are twofold. The first school of thought teaches that man has not come of age, and as such he need pray no more. Prayer made sense when man lived in an age of scarcity, but now that man lives in a world of abundance he can cast off his infantile ways and relate to God on his own terms without needing to rely upon him for anything. Genuine love now binds man to God because man does not turn to God expecting anything, but turns freely out of love. The second school of thought ultimately teaches us that God is dead. And if God is dead, then we have no need to pray to him. Of course prayer is meaningless for who are you going to pray to? Intellectual justification of the highest order and by the brightest minds results in plenty of reasons for man not to pray. Is there any reason then why man should pray?
The Only Reason for Praying
All of the reasons given by modern man justify his lack of prayer. No natural reason to pray is left for man. The only reason for man to pray then is because he is commanded to pray. No other reason will suffice.
A commandment is different than a law. A law is external, eternal, perpetual. A law must always be obeyed regardless of circumstance. A law is for everyone everywhere. Commandment is the reverse of this. A commandment is a personal word addressed to me. A commandment is when a superior expresses their will to the one who should obey. Unlike a law, a commandment does not apply to everyone everywhere. Prayer is a commandment given by God, not a law. The command to pray applies to every generation even though they weren't addressed to us. The situation of those who wrote about prayer in the bible is our situation as well. The command to pray is a command for us still today provided we hear that God is speaking and obey.
Obedience to the command is the only motivation humans need or will get. Obedience is not an obligation but the free choice of an individual. Obedience is free, not under compulsion. Obedience is never easy, and obedience involves our whole body rebelling against the obstacles to prayer. Obedience to the call to pray is about how we live our lives as well as our words. Obedience to the command to pray entails obedience to not be conformed to the world as well. We must take the command and our obedience with radical seriousness. We must obey in faith, for if we obey otherwise we are not truly praying.
True prayer must always be vigilant as well. Prayer must be vigilant to the political situation of the world. Prayer must be attentive to the factors which affect man in the world. This will require knowing the ways of the world in order to pray against them, a theme developed in length in Ellul's The Presence of the Kingdom.
Prayer must also be vigilant in waiting for Christs return. True prayer is eschatological and must be prayer in combat.
Prayer as Combat
This is perhaps Ellul's richest chapter of the book, filled with exhortations, scriptural insights, and a spiritual clarity which gets to the core of prayer. This chapter has three different focuses. Prayer in a time of abandonment, combat against God, and the act of hope. These three sections all tie together to give us an understanding of prayer as combat.
Prayer in a time of abandonment is prayer in the situation Ellul has laid out here (and I would also guess his sociological works). Given the seeming state of abandonment by God, prayer is a combat against ourselves. We have nothing pushing us to pray, yet we are still commanded to pray regardless.
Prayer is also a combat against God. Ellul makes much usage of Israel wrestling with God. This is the way he prefers to think about prayer. Prayer is a wrestling with God to come and act, but prayer is dangerous, and we should not be deceived otherwise. We should not pray unless we are willing to suffer for what we are praying for. God will often take a toll from us when we are truly interceding for and wrestling for others. For Ellul, true prayer is not opposed to action. The dichotomy between prayer and action is a false one. But prayer is more important than action. Prayer can lead to action, but prayer must always precede any action. To act without praying will always and ultimately lead to violence. We can never forget that we live in a world dominated by principalites and powers, and our struggle is against them. Politics, social action, and reforms are not our primary ways of combating these enemies. We have been given spiritual armor, and the most important of all that armor is prayer in the Spirit. We live in an age where action is highly prized and to retreat to a room to pray is viewed as of secondary importance by most (inside and outside the church). This makes the act of praying a more subversive and important act in our time than in past times.
To pray is finally an act of hope. This is because prayer is always eschatological. True prayer starts with "Our Father" and ends with "Come, Lord Jesus." Thus, the kingdom and the return of Christ are a necessary part of any prayer.
Analysis
Jacques Ellul is writing in a different spiritual climate than I live in. France is much less religious than America. Prayer is still a normal part of life for many people here, especially in the bible belt. We may be a nation of heretics, but we are still religious. Several of the problems Ellul faces are the problems we are facing. But I do think the underlying problem is still the same, even if not to the same extent. Functionally, we don't believe that prayer works and we are far more committed to action than devoting ourselves to prayer. We don't share France's lack of faith, but we do share their lack of commitment to prayer, and we surpass them in a reliance upon technique. This book then is incredibly insightful for my context as well as Ellul's.
The most challenging and insightful of all chapters was his final chapter on prayer as combat. This is an interesting read during the global coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing racial unrest. I don't have to go very far to find Christians who say they are "tired of people praying, they want them to act." This statement comes out of frustrations with white moderates going back centuries, but most clearly to Dr. Martin Luther King's speeches. The frustration with the lack of action is understandable, but the lack of belief in prayer is also revealing. If Ellul is right, and I think he is, then any call to action
July 12, 2019
I read Ellul in college but not since. He is a fascinating figure having been part of the French resistance in WWII, taught sociology in a French university and representing French reformed theology to the masses. His take on prayer is a product of his view on technology and an increasingly secular world. The first half of the book discusses why people don't pray. Written in 1970 much is made of the "death of God" movement, busier schedules due to technology and a loss of interest in traditional religion. His bottom line is that people have to want to pray and there's nothing anyone can do to motivate prayer in someone who has no interest. While 50 years old, much of the critique still rings true. The second half of the book has to do with the question, Why pray? He deals with the reality that God seems to be absent. Spoiler! The only reason he comes up with is that it is commanded. And he makes an interesting distinction between commandment and law. Still not sure if it makes sense. For someone in the Reformed tradition he makes much of our freedom. His last chapter is challenging as he calls for combat prayer, primarily with God who we need to wrestle with as Jacob did, demanding that He be the Father Jesus told us to pray to.
May 29, 2019
Not so much a review as an assessment of where I find myself after over a year of delving into Jacques Ellul's vast oeuvre. As it surely is with many people, faith is a struggle for me. Too often I find myself trying to square what appear to be complete contradictions only to discover or realize that each thing necessarily relies on the other. So it seems to be with prayer and faith, in terms of what Ellul talks about in the book, and in relating it back to my own life. At some point I will have to just make the leap, but I felt this was an invaluable stepping stone along the way.
March 27, 2021
Jacques Ellul is a fascinating thinker, coming at things from a very different angle than I'm used to. I didn't always get what he was saying (speaking to his own context), but there were many moments of penetrating insight in this book. I'm eager to dig in and read more, like Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes, and The Technological Society.
September 11, 2018
Surprenant, profond, un Ellul qui étonne ce qui pensent qu’il n’est qu’un gauchiste.
July 8, 2012
Let me start with the obvious...Jacques Ellul is a great thinker and reading him is a pure pleasure for those of us who really do like to think.
Ellul spends nearly two thirds of this book outlining various "modern" arguments against prayer. These arguments made by the "modern" person of the 1960's seem a little behind the times to we readers in a post post modern world.
His strength is his discussion about what pray is. He says that "Prayer gives consistency to life, to action, to human relations, to the facts of human existence, both small and great. Prayer holds together the shattered fragments of the creation. It makes history possible."
Ellul is fantastic when he is telling us how to live a full Christian life. He is passionate and clear, inspiring his readers to pursue their life of faith with a full on single mindedness.
Ellul spends nearly two thirds of this book outlining various "modern" arguments against prayer. These arguments made by the "modern" person of the 1960's seem a little behind the times to we readers in a post post modern world.
His strength is his discussion about what pray is. He says that "Prayer gives consistency to life, to action, to human relations, to the facts of human existence, both small and great. Prayer holds together the shattered fragments of the creation. It makes history possible."
Ellul is fantastic when he is telling us how to live a full Christian life. He is passionate and clear, inspiring his readers to pursue their life of faith with a full on single mindedness.
April 8, 2016
Easily, this is one of those books that will evoke frowning of the eye brows for most institutional church going Christians and a bewildered rapid eye blinking for most of those who fail to perceive the nature of prayer. Prayer, Ellul states, is a lifestyle in that it reveals a person's inclinations. Also this prayer is continuously initiated by the One who is revealing Himself as Truth. To pray is to foremost quiet down and listen. Loud and outward manifestations of eloquent pray-talk almost always are reduced to formulas and never come close to the inexpressible groanings of the Spirit within our hearts.
November 12, 2011
This was a required text in college. I'm reading it again (very slowly - it's so dense), and I'm really loving it. I'm only half way through, but already it has confirmed what's often bothered me about prayer, especially the "Thy will be done," which Ellul basically defines as a cop-out. So much here. There'll be at least one column out of this book.
April 23, 2016
Another book from Ellul that is akin to descending into a coal mine filled with diamonds. Slow going and murky at times, there are always two or three paragraphs that cause you to enthusiastically underline some brilliant idea that is the essence of prayer. His thoughts in prayer as combat, a wrestling with God, are especially good. A remedy for fatalistic and sentimental thinking on the subject.
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June 6, 2012Thus prayer is this striving with the One who is unknowable, beyond our grasp, unapproachable and inexpressible, asking that He finally be the One he promised he would be...prayer is the demand that God not keep silence...
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