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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

Prayer in Eastern Religions

In religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, prayer does not always have an as central devotional role as it does in the Western monotheistic faiths, due to the importance of meditation. However, prayer is still important, especially for the laity and (in Hinduism) the priesthood. This needs a lot more info...

Prayer in Paganism

In Graeco-Roman paganism, prayer...

= 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 Kabbalistic view of prayer: People involved with kabbalah (esoteric Jewish mysticism) often reject rationalist reinterpreations of prayer outright, but they also reject the social approach, in which prayer is viewed as a dialogue with God. Instead, this approach ascribes a higher meaning to the purpose of prayer, which is no less than affcecting the very fabric of reality itself, restructing and repairing the universe in a real fashion. For Kabbalists, ever prayer, every word of every prayer, and indeed, even every letter of every word of evere prayer, has a precise meaning and a precise effect. In Kabbalah and related mystical belief systems, adherents claim intimate knowledge about the way in which God relates to us and the physical universe in which we life. For people with this view, prayers can literally affect the mystical forces of the universe and repair the fabric of creation.

Among Jews, this approach has been taken by the Hassidei Ashkenaz, the Zohar, the Kabbalist school of though created by the Ari, the Ramchal, most of Hassidism, the Vilna Gaon, and rabbis such as Yaakov Emden and Kalonimus Shapira.

The rationalist approach: In this view, ultimate goal of prayer is to help train a person to focus on God through philosophy and intellectual contemplation. This approach was taken by Maimonides and the other mediveal rationalists; it became popular in Jewish, Christian and Islamic intellectual circles, but never became the most popular understanding of prayer among the layity in any of these faiths. In all three of these faiths today a significant minority of people still hold to this approach.

The experiental approach: In this approach, the purpose of prayer is to enable the person praying to gain a direct experience of God. This is approach is very significant in Christianity and widespread in Judaism (although less popular theologically). In Eastern Orthodoxy, this approach is known as hesychasm. It is also widespread in [pSufi Islam, and in some forms of mysticism. It has some similarities with the rationalist approach, since it can also involve contemplation, although the contemplation is not generally viewed as being as rational or intellectual. It also has some similarities with the Kabbalistic view, but it lacks the Kabbalistic emphasis on the importance of individual words and letters.

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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