Analyzing Prayer: Theological and Philosophical Essays

by Oliver D. Crisp (Editor), James M. Arcadi (Editor), Jordan Wessling (Editor)

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.

233 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 16, 2022

About the author

Oliver D. Crisp (PhD, University of London, DLitt, University of Aberdeen) is professor of analytic theology at the University of St. Andrews. He is the author of several books, including Analyzing Doctrine: Toward a Systematic Theology, Saving Calvinism: Expanding the Reformed Tradition, Jonathan Edwards Among The Theologians, and The Word Enfleshed: Exploring the Person and Work of Christ. He is a founding editor of the Journal of Analytic Theology, and co-organizes the annual Los Angeles Theology Conference with Fred Sanders.

Reviews

[Katherine]

Reading Analyzing Prayer kept reminding me of Raphael’s famous “School of Athens.” I do not venture to say which of this book’s twelve contributors take the central position of Plato and Aristotle. But this volume’s cross-over in thought, with also distinction and challenge to others’ arguments, is reminiscent of the vibrancy and energy present in that painting.

Oliver Crisp’s introduction to this collection explains that the book was born out of seminars held at Fuller Seminary between the years 2015-2018, owing to the ‘ripe timing’ provided by the “liturgical turn” in analytic theology, along with Scott Davidson’s research into petitionary prayer (published by Oxford in 2017). The volume aims to not only continue with the focus on petitionary prayer enjoyed in those seminars, but also achieve the goals of “deepening the engagement with the Christian tradition” and broadening out “the kinds of prayer discussed” (p. 2). These last two goals are so well met that maintaining a focus on petitionary prayer is where Prayer’s aims fall a little short—there are two essays on petition that begin the volume, by Scott Davidson and Jordan Wessling, and the subject sometimes appears in others’ essays. Otherwise the book ranges broadly and focuses on equally important subjects such as lament, unbelieving “doxastic” prayer, mystical prayer, dogmatics as a type of prayer, God’s own praying, prayer as a means of knowing God and being known, and also prayer as a means of coming to know yourself. A new idea that liturgical prayer functions as a pledge of allegiance to God is also presented for the reader’s consideration (and is the essay I personally found the most theologically problematic. G.E. Anscombe’s robust philosophy on intention kept coming to mind as I read, as an account that could at least clarify, if not jeopardize, Arcadi's account).

There is extended engagement with the theologians Karl Barth, Alexander Schmemann, Theresa de Avila, Anselm, and Aquinas. Herman Bavnick, Karl Rahner, John Calvin, Augustine, Chrysostom, Walter Brueggemann, and Hans Urs von Balthasar all do as well, though to a lesser degree. Nicholas Wolterstorff and Eleonore Stump are the choice analytic philosophy of religion dialogue partners (Sarah Coakley and Marilyn McChord Adams each get one passing mention). Analytic philosophers J.L. Austin, John Searle, Robert Nozick, and Thomas Nagel all make appearances too (the first three are missing in the index), along with Richard Swinburne and William Alston.

Compendiums such as these usually aren't read cover to cover, but should one do so, they'd find ample examples of surprise complimentary thinking and also significant challenge to one another. For example, Amber Griffioen’s essay on non-believing prayer contends with James Gordon’s retrieval of Friedrich Schleiermacher in order to provide an alternative to either “above” or “below” approaches to prayer. Griffioen’s essay unashamedly emphasizes the human individual, which would classify as the “below” approach for Gordon. Yet both go on to emphasize the important role a pray-er’s mind has in the exercise of prayer, all by means of her consciousness or imagination. This could mean that Gordon’s presentation of Schleiermacher’s approach as a ‘third way’ is not quite as set apart as he claims. His account of prayer as a unity with God where sin-consciousness gives way to God-consciousness relies upon the same mind that uses the imagination to encounter God second-personally in Griffioen’s apophatic approach to prayer.

Kyle Strobel’s account of knowledge and faith compared against Griffioen’s (understated) account of knowledge is worth considering together, too, even though Griffioen focuses on theistic prayer and Strobel on Christian prayer. For Strobel the individual gets to respond to the real and ever-presence of God through prayer, all made possible by Christ, irrespective of her personal experiences of God's presence. Strobel then appends the necessity of ‘embracing Christ in faith’ by means of ‘giving oneself to God in truth’ to the possibility of this response. Meanwhile Griffioen discusses how pray-ers would benefit from taking a playful approach to prayer via the imagination, which then opens the pray-er to God in real but new ways. Between Strobel’s insistence that God is present to the individual pray-er irrespective of her experiences of his presence, and Griffioen’s confidence in the religious imagination as a means of speaking to the second-personal God (through addressing such a God), there is room to reconsider the roles either a knowledge of Christ or a consciousness of Christ has to play in both of their accounts of prayer.

James Gordon’s and Ross Inman’s definitions of prayer carry similarities to each other too, with one focusing on God-consciousness and the other focusing on a human being’s shared attention and participating presence with God. There is even more to consider between these two essays as well, with Gordon utilizing Schleiermacher and Inman utilizing his self-declared nemesis, Karl Barth. Soon after, Katherine Songeregger singles out Schleiermacher in her essay as being a paradigmatic example of the “most natural response” one makes to explain the Holy Spirit praying, all by relying upon “excessive” mystical metaphors (p. 142; a charge Gordon quite possibly would consider to be a misunderstanding of Schleiermacher). Then James Arcadi’s essay provides complimentary account to Inman’s regarding select versions of speech-act theory, as well as both utilizing Wolterstorff’s work on communicating with and speaking to God. Of course, all of these are far from exhaustive suggestions for cross-inspectional reading.

Overall, Analyzing Prayer is a strong first start for analytic theology’s serious engagement with the subject of prayer.

*written by a real human being, and without the aid of AI