“Yes, in Crisis We Pray”. The Role of Prayer in Coping with Pandemic Fears

Roman Ryszard Szałachowski,Wioletta Tuszyńska-Bogucka

doi:10.3390/rel12100824

Roman Ryszard Szałachowski, Wioletta Tuszyńska-Bogucka

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12100824

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Abstract

Based on the concepts of Huber’s centrality of religiosity as psychosocial resource, a non-experimental, moderated mediation project was designed in a group of 176 women and 84 men, who voluntarily participated in an online study, analysing the relationship between the prayer and the fears (for health, economy/finances, social life and family relations) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine the general tendency in dependencies between variables. Among the assessed components of religiousness crucial for alleviating the fears of the COVID-19 pandemic, two forms of prayer—Private Practice and Public Practice—turned out to be the most important. Private Practice seemed to appease the fears of threats to family and social relationships of persons assessed, while Public Practice was revealed as the predictor of intensifying of the general, summed up level of fears. The areas of health (illness threat) and financial security fears were not associated neither with prayer nor any other components of religiousness. It means a selective predictive associating of prayer with the appeasing of only specific types of fears, namely those of a social nature. The results obtained point to the importance of the addressed topic in the context of searching for psycho resources in coping with difficult situations and determining their impact.

Highlights

If religiousness—as a phenomenon composed of various elements—comprises judgements and convictions on the supernatural and the experiences and feelings associated with them, prayer is a certain predisposition to specific behaviour (Spilka andLadd 2013)
The main purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between prayer and intensified fear reactions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in a sample of healthy people (Poland)
Prayer is among the attitudes revealed as predictors of the areas of fear reactions and that may be crucial to preserve the well-being by reducing the level of fear due to social relations and family life, whilst for fear in general—the attitudes and experiences associated with religious practices

Summary

Introduction

If religiousness—as a phenomenon composed of various elements—comprises judgements and convictions on the supernatural and the experiences and feelings associated with them, prayer is a certain predisposition to specific behaviour (Spilka andLadd 2013). It is how those who believe in God talk to him. That is how they reveal their eulogies and requests. The word “prayer” has many meanings, as we call “prayer” the thanksgiving, praising the glory of God, or joy of the beauty of creation. The etymology of the word priere (prayer, and petition) recalls this situation that determines its structure. As indicated by the word precarius, from which priere is derived, prayer expresses the situation when a person addressing his God realises the fragility of own condition. The contact certainly arises from the awareness of emptiness, and the word directed to another always states the petition, if only to be listened to. The term “prayer” may be used in the broad meaning to state

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