Miracle and Prayer

Abstract

Embedded in the observations made about the preternatural element in religion are the vexatious questions of miracle and the answer to prayer. Some religious thinkers have described a miracle as any event with a supernatural or religious significance. Some writers have tried to meet the case by regarding miracles as occurrences of an unusual or unexpected nature in the course of which men have acquired some distinctive religious insight. The practice of prayer is central to most religions, and some would claim that prayer is an indispensable ingredient of all religion. A prayer may be sung and recited, and a ‘reading’ may take the form of collective reading of a psalm which is also a recognized prayer. The well-known picture of the peasant pausing in the field with bowed head at prayer suggests effectively how rich the momentary pause for prayer can be. Prayer is very central and the petitionary aspect of it takes its place easily within the whole.