Abstract
When people are praying, they are not only communicating with God (upward prayer), but also they are exploring their relationships with themselves (inward prayer) and with other people (outward prayer). Internal dialogical activity includes areas which correspond to upward, inward, and outward prayer. Therefore, the aim of this article is to examine whether and how internal dialogues can be mediators in the relationship between these three types of prayer and well-being. Data from 193 respondents (143 females) were analyzed in the study. We used: the Prayer Thoughts Scale, the Internal Dialogical Activity Scale, and the Psychological Well-Being Scale. The results showed that internal dialogue served as a mediator of the relationship between upward, inward, and outward prayer and well-being.
Highlights
James (1902) asserted that prayer is the very soul and essence of religion
We hypothesized that inward prayer can be negatively associated with wellbeing through ruminative and confronting internal dialogues (IDs) (H1); upward prayer can be positively related to well-being through identity IDs (H2); and outward prayer can be positively associated with well-being through supportive IDs (H3)
What was not posed in hypotheses, we found that the relationship between upward prayer and well-being was mediated by ruminative IDs which were negatively related to both these variables
Summary
James (1902) asserted that prayer is the very soul and essence of religion. Prayer is communication through which one relates to and even identifies with God. According to James 464), prayer is “every kind of inward communion or conversation with the power recognized as divine (...).”. The communicative aspect of prayer seems to be its most evident feature (Baesler 2012; Spilka and Ladd 2014). Journal of Religion and Health (2020) 59:2045–2063 essential to defining prayer. Most major world religions include some type of communication as a defining characteristic of prayer (Baesler 2012). Academic disciplines that investigate prayer as a religious phenomenon build on the assumption that “communication” is integral to understanding prayer (Baesler 2012)
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