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Prayer is the religious act of communicating with God (for monotheists) or the gods (for polytheists). The existence of prayer is attested to in written sources as early as 5000 years ago; anthropologists believe that the earliest intelligent humans engaged in some sort of activity that we today would recognize as prayer. Both theologians and religious anthropologists note that there are many types of prayer. Four of the most basic types of prayer are thanksgiving to God, confession of one's sins, praise of one's God, and petitioning God for help or to fulfill our needs.

The Biblical views of prayer

In the Tanach (Hebrew Bible, aka Old Testament) various forms of prayer appear, but the most common form is petition. This in mnay ways is the simplest form of prayer. Some have termed this the social approach: in this view, a person really does confront God in prayer, and asks for their needs to be fulfilled; God really does listen to prayer. This is the primary approach to prayer found in the Tanach, most of the Church writings, the Talmud and most modern day prayerbooks by monotheistic religios.

Reference

Moshe Greenberg, "Biblical Prose Prayer as a Window to the Popular Religion of Ancient Israel."

Abraham Joshua Heschel, "Man's Quest for God" Scribner, NY, 1954

Seth Kadish, "Kavvana: Directing the Heart in Jewish Prayer" Jason Aronson Inc., 1997

= Philosophical re-interpretations of prayer

Beyond the basic ideas listed above, post-Biblical theologians began to consider the various philosophical problems involved in prayer; various re-interpretations of prayer evolved. These interpretations were developed in great detail by the medieval neo-Platonic and neo-Aristotelian philosophers, and have heavilly influences how many people pray today. At the moment, the descriptions below list some Jewish sources, but each of these views of prayers also has Christian and Muslim proponents as well; there was much intellectual cross-fertilization between Jews, Christians and Muslims during parts of the middle-ages, and one should not be surprised at the convergence that exists among the philosophers of that era.

The educational approach: In this view, prayer is not a conversation with God. Rather, it is meant to inculcate certain attitudes in the one who prays, but not to influence God. Among Jews, this has been the approach of Rabbenu Bachya, Yehuda Halevy, Joseph Albo, Samson Raphael Hirsch, and Joseph Dov Soloveitchik. This view is expressed by R. Nosson Scherman in the overview to the Artscroll Siddur (p.XIII); note that R. Scherman goes on to also affirm the Kabbalistic view (see below).

The philosophical paradoxes of prayer

There are a number of philosophical paradoxes involving prayer to an omnipotent God, namely:

• If a person deserves God to give him the thing he prays for, why doesn't God give it to him, even without prayer? And if a person is not deserving of it, then even if that person does pray and request it, should it be given just because of his prayer?

• Why should it be necessary to pray with speech? Doesn't God know the thoughts of all people?

• If God is omniscient (all-knowing) then doesn't God know what we are going to ask Him for even before we pray?

• How can a human being hope to change God's mind? Why should human prayers affect God's decisions?

• Do human beings actually have the ability to praise an omniscient and omnipotent God? Praising God is difficult to do without describing God, yet how can a finite human being know anything about God's ultimate nature? This question was the subject of heated debate among many religious philosophers.

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