In God's Presence: Theological Reflections on Prayer

by Marjorie Suchocki

Suchocki explores the dynamics of prayer. "If," she says, "we regard prayer as a partnership with, not a manipulation of, God, we can find whole new dimensions in our prayer life."

Genres: Theology, Prayer, Religion, Spirituality, Christianity, Faith, Christian Living

144 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 30, 1996

Reviews

[Corey Hampton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an absolutely gorgeous book. It is beautifully written, on a topic that I find particularly difficult. I just finished it, but I want to read it again immediately.

I’m so grateful for Suchocki’s work, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. I hope to work through this book with several others throughout my ministry, and I hope that it will shape me as profoundly as my experience of reading it has moved me.

[Colleen Carroll · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my all time favorites!

[Luke Hillier · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was introduced to process theology by The Female Face of God in Auschwitz about five years ago and have been able to read a number of others swimming in those waters since then. By and large, it's become a meaningful and central influence to my own theological orientation, but if I'm honest the one weak spot where it seemed to do more harm than good was prayer. I still have a strong contemplative bend so that was never erased from my spiritual life, but as I got more settled into process thought, I felt more tension around some instances of prayer, particularly intercessory. In light of that, I'm deeply indebted to this book for helping me to understand that in a deeper and more cohesive way!

The book begins with a beautiful articulation of process theology, wondering if "perhaps God creates not as a power over an inert matter molded into form, with a single purpose, but as a power with all matter, present to it, pervading it with presence, with multiple purposes." She goes onto say, "Think of water as a different metaphor for God. Water rushes to fill all the nooks and crannies available to it; water swirls around every stone, sweeps into every crevice, touches all things in its path –– and changes all things in its path. The changes are subtle, often slow, and happen through a continuous interaction with the water that affects both the water and that which the water touches." This idea climaxes a page later when she says, "For if God is omnipresent, centering all things, then God is like the rushing water of the universe, filling all spaces, honoring all spaces, centering all spaces through specialness of divine presence. Prayer in such a universe makes eminent sense –– for God is always present. And perhaps this divine presence invites us into communion."

While really resonant and moving, though, this didn't necessarily address the unique qualms that I'd developed around intercessory prayer in particular. Thankfully, this is solely the foundation of her thought, and she includes a chapter on intercessory prayer and another on prayers for healing to follow. A sort of mantra that develops (and if I'm honest loses impact as the book goes on because of its repetition) is the notion that "God works with the world as it is to lead it to where it can be." In other words, consistent with process thought, God isn't omnipotently capable of enacting something inconsistent with the realm of possibility for a present moment, and is instead always working to persuade the present towards a better future. What Suchocki so simply and logically explains that I had honestly never considered before is that, at a fundamental level, our prayer impacts "the world as it is." In other words, a world devoid of prayer is ontologically different from a world soaked in it, and if God is always engaging with the world as it is, then prayer does in fact make a significant difference. In fact, there's an interesting notion that prayer in some way seems to "clear a path" for God's presence and work in our lives, both by opening us up to greater obedience as vessels of that work but also in a more mystical sense that for whatever reason made sense to me in ways it hadn't before.

While that was definitely the climax of significance for me, I also really appreciated her thoughts on confessional prayer (both personal and corporate/systemic). The idea that, if process thought is true and God feels/receives/is present to all things, and that necessarily including the ill will, negativity, and rage we feel towards certain others was especially convicting! However, I definitely felt the book dragging after that, feeling almost like it was just trying to hit a page quota. Suchocki seems a bit prone to circular, repetitive writing and the chapters on liturgical prayers and the Lord's prayer felt pretty unnecessary and a bit off-course from the focused intentions of the book. While I really appreciate how practical, pastoral, and accessible the writing is (especially in contrast to a lot of much more dense and academic process material), the irony is that I think this would have made for an exceptional academic essay but in book form there just doesn't seem to be enough to make it strong the whole way through. Also, the cover is pretty awful haha. Still, I'm grateful to have read it and I can genuinely say it's impacted my relationship with God...so that's high praise!

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am no theologian nor would try to play one on TV. Despite that I found this book very helpful and hopeful, and I recommend it to anyone who, like myself, has been a lifelong theist but struggled somewhat with authoritarian language and imagery. This book offers an alternative view that seems very promising to me. What I find most helpful is Suchocki's counter-imagery of God as soaking "water", and relational prayer as "dance."

[Taylor Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fairly in-depth yet quick read for those interested in some of the more advanced and thorough views on prayer. This is all a reflective book as the author imbues her own tragedies and joys into her writing.

[J. Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting perspective on prayer and how the author believes it works. It is a thought provoking read.

[Marion J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book on prayer from a process theology point on view. Very alive and helpful articulation of the role of prayer in a post modern world.

[Kathryn Baverstock · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this as part of a book study. I found it thought provoking. I loved the metaphor of God being like water. I also like the relational aspect of God.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I suspect that I am not the only one who doesn’t know how to pray. When I was young it baffled me as to why we would ask God for things when God was all-powerful and didn’t need our help anyway. As I grew older, I began to ask (as most of us do) why bad things happen to good people, and I grew indignant at a God who would answer the prayers of some and not others. In college I let myself begin to ask seriously ask the questions that followed and that began to change my whole understanding of the concept of God.

As she unfolds her theological reflections on prayer, this is where Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki begins: with the question of God. As a process theologian, she gently and logically pulls out the implications of subjective knowledge and the way traditional understandings of prayer posit God as a genie, an egoist, or a tyrannical king (16-17).

Then she moves us beyond these images of “a self-sufficient God who acts unilaterally” (18) to an image of an intersubjective, relational God, a God who affects the world and who is affected by the world. The relational theology of prayer follows:

Prayer is not only for our sakes, but also for God’s sake… God works with the world as it is in order to bring it to where it can be. Prayer changes the way the world is, and therefore changes what the world can be. Prayer opens the world to its own transformation. (18-19)

Again and again Suchocki repeats this notion that God is with the world in its radical particularities. God is not “out there” projecting an ideal vision onto a broken world but immanently here via a relational connectivity that is intrinsic to the very nature of God.

Through the energy of prayer, the circumstances of life with all their attendant possibilities are woven together. God is the persuasive power toward wholeness and goodness, and our prayers meet that power (albeit within the limits of our own knowledge) to contribute to forces of well-being that transcend space. It is in this sense, Suchocki writes, that “our prayers change what is possible. For God is never at a distance” (50).

Again and again, Suchocki repeats the idea that God works with the world as it is in order to bring it to where it can be. From this foundation, she offers chapters on ways to think about and engage in intercessory prayer, prayers for healing, prayers for personal confession, prayers for corporate confession, liturgical prayers, and the Lord’s Prayer. This book is well worth the read simply for these chapters, but for the thoughtful reader there are some questions that remain.

In chapter three, Suchocki outlines the conditions of prayer, including interdependence with God, honesty both with God and with ourselves, and language - the actual words we speak.

On this final point she writes, “I suspect that all language and no language is appropriate,” and a critical reader must keep this in mind as Suchocki's descriptive words around prayer continue to carry forward personified language that has she has moved beyond theologically.

Here is my only true disappointment with this book, a disappointment that is perhaps inevitable. The language that we currently use to talk about the divine and to talk to the divine doesn’t move us into this hopeful, subjective, radically interconnected construct.

I’m left with this question: how do we create new liturgies, prayers, and hymns without falling too far into the abstract on one hand or subtly retaining the notions of God that we want to move beyond on the other? Perhaps Suchocki gives us a hint as she begins and ends the book with water as a metaphor for God (4, 25).

Now we need more people to translate this kind of theological innovation into terms that will work in a local congregation with thinking and growing people of faith.

[Rev. Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book explores the dynamics of prayer, what it is and what it isn't. Gave me some fresh insight into how I can deepen my prayer life and quiet times spent with God, and during corporate prayer in worship settings.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Caused me to seriously reconsider what was going on for me during "prayer". What is my image of God and what impact does my prayer life on the not just me but on the world.....

[Gordon Schneider · Rating 5 out of 5]

was recommended years ago. Should have read it sooner! Enjoyed it immensely.

[Sherry Edwards · Rating 3 out of 5]

I needed to read this book. I enjoyed the sections on personal prayer more than the sections on group prayers.

[Sarah Boyette · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a beautifully-written poetic book about prayer. I absolutely loved every page and toted it around quoting it to friends for several weeks.

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful and powerful images of relational God.