Further Reflections on the Nature of Prayer in a Non-Theistic Scheme

Again these are better described as snippets rather than well formulated ideas but here they are for better or for worse.

Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming and he answered, “The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For, in fact, the kingdom of God is within you.”
- Luke 17.20-21

If we reject the “I-Thou” relationship between God, persons, and the world, then we must accept that, for whatever prayer is to be, whatever it is to accomplish, it must occur within the realm of creation alone, and more specifically within humanity. There is no supernatural Thou or realm towards which to direct prayer. This does not deny that there may be some such thing as spirit. Rather, spirit, or whatever it might be, remains mired in this world, in earthiness and in matter. It is at home in the universe, to borrow a phrase from Stuart Kauffman, just as are we humans and everything else that exists.

The active force of prayer – what it may or may not bring about – exists in this realm alone as there is no other. This gives us an insight towards the nature of prayer. It is this worldly – bringing about some thing or things within this world.

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!
- 2 Corinthians 5:17

One issue to overcome is the notion that there is a great disparity between the end result of a person’s life of faith and their current state. Indeed this is not helped by the language of the New Testament, rife as it is with verses expounding on the new creation, etc. I do not with to say that there is error in this plethora of “newness,” yet I do feel that it is misunderstood or at least that this idea of the new creation must also be re-interpreted just as prayer should be.

The issue begins from a misconception of the nature of humanity. Due to the doctrine of original sin (along with others), so embedded within all of Christian thought, the new creation is seen to be something that overcomes a moral defect. The Christian life becomes then merely a challenge for the Christian to do good, to sin no more. While there is nothing wrong with this attempt, the focus upon sin as the impediment between God and humanity limits the potential for the creative transformation with the Christian. This new creature is limited to a being that merely attempts harder and harder to refrain from sin, becoming a moral athlete.

Importantly these sins are of a personal nature and this struggle to overcome personal shortcomings spirals downward leaving the Christian a sad depressed individual forever gazing upon their sins, constantly failing.

We forget that the new creation is still a creation. In following the Christ we do not lose our humanity. Rather our humanity is made aware of the potential for creative growth to explore afresh what it means to be human. Christ is not for us to become non-human but rather to become more human, to embrace those qualities that define us as such. Too often these aspirations are viewed as folly, being impossible or something that is to come in the future, implemented by God at the end of time. This is the worst possible interpretation available today. What is required of Christ today is a way for us to become through our humanity a new creature...a new human, but still so very human.

Pray without ceasing.
- 1 Thessalonians 5.17

It is in embracing this humanity that we look now at prayer. Prayer is a way of living. Due to the “I-Thou” misunderstanding of God, the format for prayer is often only conceivable as communication rather than action. One cannot pray to something as there is nothing to pray to. That is, it is commonly understood that prayer is simply a communication between the divine and the individual or group. So if we remove God from the equation we are left, if we continue only with prayer as conversation, a one-sided conversation. Clearly then, if we are to retain prayer as an important action of faith, we must redefine prayer.

What is it we want from prayer? What do we hope to get out of it? Can we delineate prayer from other things? I think we can because prayer, whatever our final definition may be, it seems to be different from other actions. But, if we are to take the injunction of 1 Thessalonians seriously, this separation could be a problem. Our faith should be something that is indistinguishable from the rest of our life. Our life should be our faith and our faith should be our life. How far then can we claim prayer to be an intentional act?

Unconscious/ Habitual Prayer and Intentional Prayer

I would like to say that prayer is an action. This is obvious I suppose, but I think that it is important to stress that prayer is something that one does. It is said that we are to pray without ceasing. Yet if prayer is an action, it seems an impossible task to be constantly engaged in an intentional act.

The life of faith is a series of assents to various propositions resulting in a commitment to a particular orientation of one’s life. Faith is not a separate thing to be distinguished from the person, bur rather is the entire constitution of the person. I have initially distinguished between two different manifestations of prayer, that of unconscious or habitual prayer and that of intentional prayer. Unconscious or habitual prayer could be equated to breathing. It is an action that occurs without any pre-conscious decision to engage in that act. And it is in this way that we can pray without ceasing. The essence of this prayer is awareness of existence through the paradigm of the Christ, the new creation. It is unconscious or habitual because as it is indistinguishable from our personal existence - it is who we are and how we see the world.

It is when we become focused and immediately aware of this orientation of our existence through the paradigm of the Christ - the new creation - that we can engage in intentional prayer. Personal prayer then is precisely these moment of intense, intentional, (or accidental) awareness of the new creation. Liturgical or group prayer could be understood as an opening up – a listening to and participation in- a communal conversation. In this act, the group is listening to and speaking to the shared communal beliefs, concerns, and orientation. In both personal and liturgical/ group prayer, the communicative act occurs through the orientation of the person/ group toward the Christ.

The paradigm of the new creation, of the Christ, is marked by empathy with life, appreciation of one’s position within it, forgiveness of others, and openness to the immense possibilities of creativity that exist within us and through us. When we are thus open to this way of seeing the world, when our thought or action become shaped by these, we are engaged in prayer as our entire being is at that time given definition and form by Christ. And it is through this that our creativity, the creative movement that is God, is able to be directed via the paradigm of Christ.