Petitionary Prayer: Immature but Common in Christians? A Descriptive and Exploratory Study
Private prayer is an important element in the lives of many Americans. Even among nonreligious atheists and agnostics, nearly 20% engage in daily prayer. One prayer type, the so-called petitionary prayer (i.e., asking God for material things and health for oneself or others) is proposed to be associ...
| Published in: | Research in the social scientific study of religion |
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| Authors: | ; ; ; ; |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
2016
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| In: |
Research in the social scientific study of religion
Year: 2016, Volume: 27, Pages: 210-225 |
| Further subjects: | B
Religious sociology
B Social sciences B Religionspsycholigie B Religionswissenschaften B Religion & Gesellschaft B Vergleichende Religionswissenschaft & Religionswissenschaft |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Private prayer is an important element in the lives of many Americans. Even among nonreligious atheists and agnostics, nearly 20% engage in daily prayer. One prayer type, the so-called petitionary prayer (i.e., asking God for material things and health for oneself or others) is proposed to be associated with the lowest level of religious development but is also positively associated with positive outcomes. Thus, we aimed in two cross-sectional online studies (n = 263 & 1121) to examine who uses petitionary prayer, for whom and what, and what effects they anticipate. We did not find significant differences in the frequency of petitionary prayer between different age groups, members of different denominations, or different races/ethnicities. However, men prayed marginally significantly more petitionary prayers than women. People who were less open to new spiritual experiences prayed petitionary prayers more often. Nevertheless, petitionary prayers were not associated with faith maturity. Petitionary prayers were mainly for others (58%) and healing or recovery from illness was the focus of 54% of the petitionary prayers, followed by requests for psychological comfort (18%), and solutions to a specific stress perceived as unsolvable via other means (12%). Of the participants who described petitionary prayer, 94% said things turned out as well or even better than they had asked, and the 6% who said things did not turn out as they had prayed for said that they had gained insight into why the actual outcome was better. The findings need to be replicated in prospective studies with samples that are more diverse in terms of race, ethnicity and religion |
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| Contains: | Enthalten in: Research in the social scientific study of religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/9789004322035_014 |