Practice Of Prayer Research Articles

Inculcation Religiosity in Preschoolers Local content curriculum

Millennial era life is a big challenge, humans need a strong footing to face all the problems. Religion is God's guidance that becomes the handle of life and it is important to instill religious beliefs early on. The purpose of this study was to find the cultivation of religiosity in preschool children in Kindergarten Aisyiyah Branch and Kindergarten Santa Maria in Kartasura Regency. This study uses qualitative methods with data collection tools, namely interviews, direct observation, and document analysis. Data validated using triangulation of methods and sources. The results showed that the religiosity of planting in the TK Aisyiyah Kartasura branch had more burdens than in the Santa Maria Kindergarten. While its nature is more balanced between vertical ritual content and horizontal content in TK Aisyiyah Kartasura branches compared to TK Santa Maria. The cultivation of moral education is carried out through a step-by-step process starting with teaching to say and answer greetings (Islam), saying good morning and evening to non-Muslims and inviting children to always pray in every activity. Vertical ritual planting in TK Aisyiyah Kartasura branch has more burden through the practice of prayer, memorizing prayers and memorizing short letters from the Qur'an all in Arabic compared to TK Santa Maria only emphasizes the memorization of prayer in Indonesian.
 Keywords: Inculcation religiosity, Pre-schoolers, Local content curriculum

Intercession and the Taboo and Stigma on Mental Health and Doctrinal Anomalies: Pastoral and Theological Implications of Public Prayer Practices

Abstract Prayers of intercession cover a wide range of topics, yet prayers for mental health or issues around sexuality or divorce prove to be taboo and stigmatised. This article interprets this finding from empirical research with the theories of taboo as outlined by Alasdair MacIntyre and Mary Douglas. The article offers pastoral-theological reflections on the problem of taboo and stigma – caused by doctrine or cultural norms – in intercession. The article argues that the practices of solidarity, naming, and hospitality reframe the way taboo and stigma can be thought about theologically and therefore eventually might influence intercession in public worship.

Gebet, Ablass und Heilsaneignung im Mittelalter

Abstract This article focuses on the connections between prayer and indulgence established in the 13th and 14th centuries. Since the Early Middle Ages, practices of prayer played a significant role in the ecclesiastical system of penance. They were supposed to provide salvation by redeeming the devotee from sins. With the advent of indulgence, the salvific value of prayer became more closely entangled with the authority of the papacy and the bishops. Generally speaking, papal indulgences were very standardized, and thus only few practices of prayer are mentioned in the respective documents. Episcopal grants of indulgence, on the other hand, were influenced more strongly by their recipients and can thus be more detailed. Two types of prayer indulgences were especially successful: first, indulgences for venerating the Veronica and other holy images, and secondly, indulgences granted to those praying for the King’s salvation.

Impact of Education Status, Religious Knowledge and Family Economy on the Practicing Prayer Students for Primary School in Setiu District, Terengganu Malaysia

Prayer is a religious pillar where prayer is the greatest of worship that brings the servant closer to his Lord and it is the steadfastness of the relationship of the creature and its creator. The sholat according to syarak is defined as a few words and deeds commenced with takbir and endorsed with greetings and with the conditions specified. This study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of educational status, religious knowledge and family economy on student prayer practice primary school in Setiu District. Total sample 175 secondary school students (level two) of the study. Data were analyzed using IBM-SPSS-AMOS (SEM) program version 21.0. The findings indicate that the educational status, religious knowledge, and family economy on student prayer practice primary school. Furthermore, Inference analysis findings also show educational status, religious knowledge and family economy, have a positive and significant influence on student prayer practice. This shows that family education, especially in religious knowledge and economic family, plays a role in the practice of prayer in primary schools. In conclusion, the implications of this research, the researchers are aware of the need for cooperation from the school to emphasize the students on the practice of prayer in their daily lives. Although the level of education and family economics is a factor in the practice of prayer in this study, the role of teachers helps to overcome them.
 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3467647

Impact of Education Status, Religious Knowledge and Family Economy on the Practicing Prayer Students for Primary School in Setiu District, Terengganu Malaysia

Prayer is a religious pillar where prayer is the greatest of worship that brings the servant closer to his Lord and it is the steadfastness of the relationship of the creature and its creator. The sholat according to syarak is defined as a few words and deeds commenced with takbir and endorsed with greetings and with the conditions specified. This study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of educational status, religious knowledge and family economy on student prayer practice primary school in Setiu District. Total sample 175 secondary school students (level two) of the study. Data were analyzed using IBM-SPSS-AMOS (SEM) program version 21.0. The findings indicate that the educational status, religious knowledge, and family economy on student prayer practice primary school. Furthermore, Inference analysis findings also show educational status, religious knowledge and family economy, have a positive and significant influence on student prayer practice. This shows that family education, especially in religious knowledge and economic family, plays a role in the practice of prayer in primary schools. In conclusion, the implications of this research, the researchers are aware of the need for cooperation from the school to emphasize the students on the practice of prayer in their daily lives. Although the level of education and family economics is a factor in the practice of prayer in this study, the role of teachers helps to overcome them. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3467647

The Christian Meditation Movement: A Critical Perspective

The Christian Meditation Movement: A Critical Perspective Alexandra Slaby Introduction Lex orandi, lex credendi. The law of prayer determines the law of faith.1 In other words, how you pray determines how you believe, and how you pray can modify what you believe. Since the end of the Second Vatican Council, which steered the Catholic Church in the direction of ecumenism and interfaith dialogue, and in the postmodern context of an interiorisation of faith, Catholics have been led to ‘ask themselves what value non-Christian forms of meditation might have for [them]. Above all, the question concerns Eastern methods’.2 Fascination for Eastern forms of prayer among Catholic laity and clergy is not new and predates the 1960s. As early as 1943, German JesuitHugoLassallesawthatthemeditationtaughtbyJapaneseZenBuddhism helped him deepen his Catholic faith, and his work has been carried on by Belfast-born fellow Jesuit William Johnston.3 Benedictine monks also have a long history of interest in bridging Eastern and Western contemplative prayer practices – from John Cassian who inspired the Benedictine Rule to Henri Le Saux (aka swami Abhishiktananda)4 to Jean-Marie Déchanet (aka the father of Christian yoga)5 to John Main, the founder of the Christian Meditation Movement to Laurence Freeman, his disciple. It has never been easier to travel East, physically or culturally. At the same time, however, Christians are less well equipped for this spiritual encounter than in the past, when the contents of their Christian faith were transmitted with a reliable continuity in time and space. Meanwhile, Eastern spiritual traditions are valued in a postmodern, New Age synthesis of cultures and spiritualities where ecclesial authority has been challenged and where elements of different faiths and spiritualities can be combined (‘Buddhist and Catholic’) if they offer a new hope of receiving affirmation and healing. Eastern meditation has gained a growing attraction in the Western Catholic world, to the point where it has become a mainstream practice taking place in spiritual and lay settings. In Ireland, it is not uncommon to find The Christian Meditation Movement: A Critical Perspective Studies • volume 108 • number 431 313 Studies_layout_AUTUMN-2019.indd 81 21/08/2019 09:14 Irish Catholics saying that such a form of meditation helps them in their Catholic practice. The Dominican retreat centre in Tallaght offered a Holy Week session in 2018 called ‘Zen and the self-emptying of Christ’. Louis Hughes OP in Kilkenny writes and preaches about body-mind spirituality, yoga and Christian meditation.6 The Jesuit Centre for Spirituality and Culture in Galway has recently been organising sessions called ‘Dive Deeper: Exploring spirituality and ways of prayer’ in a ‘contemplative approach drawing on Christian spirituality and Eastern practices such as mindfulness’.7 The newsletters of Christian Meditation Ireland, Irish chapter of the World Community for Christian Meditation (WCCM) show that the group holds sessions in various parishes throughout the country. These developments unfold at a time when, the Vatican notes, ‘it must unfortunately be admitted that there are too many cases where Catholic centres of spirituality are actively involved in diffusing New Age religiosity in the Church’.8 New Age religiosity is animated by the aspiration to create a global spirituality transcending boundaries between faiths, in search of a common global spiritual core which will unite mankind among itself and with the cosmos. So, when we hear the phrase ‘Christian mantra’, as proposed by WCCM, not only the Tibetan meditation bell, but alarm bells may ring as well. Can such a word and a practice as ‘mantra’be imported into the Christian prayer tradition without modifying the contents of the faith? It is in the light of these questions that I would like to offer an attempt at discernment on Christian Meditation Movement, understood as the prayer practice taught by WCCM. John Main’s Christian Meditation movement The Christian Meditation Movement, led by Anglo-Irish Benedictine monks, is embraced and established in Irish Catholic life, judging by the frequency of visits to the island by Fr Laurence Freeman and by the invitation of Mary McAleese as speaker at the 1997 John Main Seminar which was held in Dublin. Beyond Ireland, the movement is relatively marginal, but has not been condemned, and its members have...

The Relationship between the Korean Dawn Prayer Meeting and Spirituality

This article analyzes the formative power of the Korean dawn prayer service to better understand the public and private dimensions of Christian spirituality. It explores the origin of the dawn prayer in the history of Korean Protestantism, and examines an example from a particular church. On the basis of this exploration, it is argued that the dawn prayer service should not be understood as an instrument to strengthen individual spirituality, but rather as a place to participate in God’s redemptive work to and for the world. Both the individual and communal aspects of dawn prayer practice are important, but I will argue that current Korean practice leans too much toward the individual.

Peningkatan Agama dan Moral Melalui Demonstrasi Praktek Sholat pada Kelompok B di Raudhatul Athfal Nurul Ikhwan Kualuh Leidong Labura


 In this research, the developmental aspect is the development of religious and moral values. Based on the results of observations, it shows that the children of group B in RA Nurul Ikhwan have not been able to perform prayer movements. The problem in this research is how to implement, inhibit and support factors in improving religion and morals through demonstrations of prayer practices in group B in Raudhatul Athfal Nurul Ikhwan Kualuh Leidong Labura. This research method is classroom action research. This research is carried out in 2 research cycles, namely: planning, implementing, observing and reflecting in cycles 1 and 2. The data collection techniques used in the study were observation, performance, documentation and interviews. Data Collection Tool with Observation Rubric; List of performance appraisals; Documentation; Interviews and Data Analysis Techniques in this study used qualitative data analysis techniques. This research yielded significant results, namely increasing the activeness and ability to practice prayer of group B students at RA Nurul Ikhwan Kualuh Leidong, North Labuhanbatu. Based on the Developmental Achievement Level Standard (STPP) of students, it can be concluded that the average increase in students' prayer practice skills is in the pre-cycle by 11%, then in cycle 1 the average is 50%, then in cycle 2 there is an increase by an average of 90%.
 Keywords: Religious and Moral Values, Demonstration of Prayer Practice

REKONSTRUKSI SEJARAH SHALAT SEBAGAI LEMBAGA KEAGAMAAN ISLAM (Telaah kitab Tafsir Ibnu Katsir)

This research was conducted in order to reveal the details and details of the history of prayer history in the interpretation of Ibn Kathir. In this study, several important conclusions can be taken, First, prayer actually has been long before Islam came, as evidenced by the practices of prayer performed by Pagan around the Ka'bah in certain different ways and relationships with the way of Islamic prayer compilation comes. Second, from the interpretation data that the writer can convey the period of the stipulation of prayer in the interpretation of Ibn Kathir into two, namely the obligation prayer before Isra` and Mi`raj, and obliation prayer by Isra` and Mi`raj. To pray before Isra` and Mi`raj, the Messenger of Allah had performed the evening prayer through Surat al-Muzzammil sentence 1 and prayed in the morning and evening with the anatomy of the raka`at prayer only two raka`at-dua raka`at, because of Isra `and Mi`raj as the beginning of the five-day prayer period, raka`at prayer still consists of two raka`at, the prayer provisions are fourteen raka`at fix the Prophet's compilation in Medina, by providing the two prayers raka`at is given to those who is on the way (Safar) and prayer with four raka`at is intended for the settled. Third, the night prayer required to complete the beginning of prophethood became the sunna of the compilation of Muslims already in Medina, due to the factor of seeing the enthusiasm of Muslims who performed the evening prayers so that they were burdensome.

Relational-based Christian practices of gratitude and prayer positively impact Christian university students' reported prosocial tendencies

As Christians, we are created to be in three important relationships: (i) with God, (ii) with people, and (iii) with creation. In this study, we investigated how pedagogy related to Christian practices of relationality impacted university students' prosocial tendencies. We exercised Christian practices of gratitude and intercessory prayer, together with pedagogical interventions, including class discussions, self-evaluation surveys, and reflection papers. Intervention classes were compared to control classes. Students who participated in Christian practices reported positive changes in prosocial tendencies. This study illustrates how Christian practices of gratitude and intercessory prayer can be used to honor God and promote relationality through greater prosocial tendencies in Christian university students.

IMPLEMENTASI KEGIATAN DOA REMAJA KATOLIK (REKAT) DI PAROKI SANTO HILARIUS KLEPU

Prayer was very important in Jesus’ life and the saints’ lives. Prayer also becomes the important need in the faithfuls’ life. Prayer is a mean to fight againts the devil and the power of sin. Prayer is also an expression of faith in God. It also becomes the way of human being to always remember to God. There are some problems: what is prayer? How do the Catholic teens of St. Hilarius’ Parish, Klepu pray together? What kind of benefits of praying together for the Catholic Teens in St. Hilarius’ parish, Klepu? What kind of impedements in praying together that the Catholic Teens of St. Hilarius’ Parish experience? The aims of this research are: to clarify the definition of prayer, to explain how the Catholic Teens of Hilarius’ parish, Klepu to do their praying together, to explain the benefits of prayer together for the Catholic Teens of St. Hilarius’ parish, Klepu. Finally, to identify various factors that supporting or inhibiting the practice of prayer of the Catholic Teens of St. Hilarius’ parish, Klepu. This research used qualitative research methods. In this study there are 10 respondents consisting of 4 male respondents and 6 female respondents. They are between 13-15 years old. They are members of St. Hilarius’ parish, Klepu. The conclusions of the research are: 1) The Catholic Teens of St. Hilarius’ parish, Klepu know the understanding of prayer. 2) The Catholic Teens of St. Hilarius’ parihs, Klepu already carry out prayers in certain times either personally or communal prayer in St. Hilarius’ parish, Klepu. 3) The Catholic Teens of St. Hilarius’ parish, Klepu understand that the benefits of communal prayer are: creating a partnership or relationship with God and friends, as well as the means to develop their personality.

Cantus figuratusand monastic re-figuration in the late medieval Veneto

AbstractIn 1409 Ludovico Barbo arrived at the monastery of Santa Giustina in Padua, intent on its reformation. Since the late fourteenth century, the scriptorium at Santa Giustina had produced some of the most significant collections of polyphonic music to survive from the period, specialising in copying the avant-garde repertories of the Ars nova. Yet the reforms Barbo sought to introduce – reforms based on ideals he and a cohort of Venetians had been living out on the island of S. Giorgio in Alga – eschewed outward ostentation, and centred on prayerful engagement with the scene of Christ's Passion. Barbo's initiatives would seem at odds with the tradition of secular polyphony cultivated at the monastery in the years before his arrival. Official documents from the reform prohibit the practice of cantus figuratus and paint a picture of a uniformly spare music aesthetic.Manuscript and material evidence from Santa Giustina and dependent houses tells a different story, and suggests that communities found use for the monastery's musical past within the reformed practice of prayer and meditation. Vestiges of this past appear in the most unlikely of places: the Good Friday rituals that Barbo himself worked to strip of polyphonic accoutrement. The efforts of individual monks, musicians and scribes – here Rolando da Casale, whose musical expertise Barbo enlisted in the copying of new liturgical manuscripts, and Johannes Preottonus – emerge as telling examples of the ways in which institutional histories come under the pressure of their individual actors.

Religiosity and Meditation Practice: Exploring Their Explanatory Power on Psychological Adjustment.

There has been increased interest in the relationships between religiosity, meditation practice and well-being, but there is lack of understanding as to how specific religious components and distinct meditation practices could influence different positive and negative psychological adjustment outcomes. The aim of this study was to assess the explanatory power of religious beliefs and the practice of prayer, focused attention (FA), open monitoring (OM), and compassion meditation (CM) on psychological adjustment, taking into consideration a number of practice-related variables such as session length, frequency of practice and lifetime practice. Psychological adjustment was assessed by means of happiness, positive affect, depression, negative affect, and emotional overproduction. A cross-sectional design was used, with a final sample comprising 210 Spanish participants who completed an online assessment protocol. Hierarchical regressions were performed, including age, sex and psychotropic medication use in the first step as possible confounders, with the addition of religious beliefs and the practice of prayer, FA, OM, and CM in the second step. FA session length was related to all psychological adjustment outcomes: happiness (ΔR2 = 0.09, p = 0.002; β = 0.25, p = 0.001), positive affect (ΔR2 = 0.09, p = 0.002; β = 0.18, p = 0.014), depression (ΔR2 = 0.07, p = 0.004; β = -0.27, p < 0.001), negative affect (ΔR2 = 0.08, p = 0.007; β = -0.27, p < 0.001) and emotional overproduction (ΔR2 = 0.07, p = 0.013; β = -0.23, p = 0.001). CM session length was related to positive affect (β = 0.18, p = 0.011). CM practice frequency was associated with happiness (ΔR2 = 0.06, p = 0.038; β = 0.16, p = 0.041). Lifetime practice of FA was related to happiness (ΔR2 = 0.08, p = 0.007; β = 0.21, p = 0.030) and OM to emotional overproduction (ΔR2 = 0.08, p = 0.037; β = -0.19, p = 0.047). Religious beliefs and prayer seemed to be less relevant than meditation practices such as FA, OM, and CM in explaining psychological adjustment. The distinct meditation practices might be differentially related to distinct psychological adjustment outcomes through different practice-related variables. However, research into other forms of institutional religiosity integrating social aspects of religion is required.

Understanding Dante’s Comedy as Virtuous Friendship

As Dante explains in his epistle to Can Grande, the purpose of the Comedy is to move the reader from a state of misery to a state of happiness. The poet himself testifies that the poem was written as a work of moral philosophy oriented to the achievement of happiness, eudaimonia: the beatific vision of God. Moreover, Dante insists on his poem’s efficacy to affect in its readers a similar moral and religious transformation as that which the poem represents through the narrative journey of the pilgrim. To put it another way, Dante represents his poem’s relationship to its reader as a kind of virtuous friendship. This essay sets forth a model for teaching Dante’s poem as an experiment in virtuous friendship that can transform the classroom into a workshop for the philosophical and religious quest for happiness. This involves teaching the text with an eye not only to the content and style of the poem but also to the performative and participatory demands of the text. Beginning with this framework, this essay works out pedagogical strategies for teaching the Comedy as a form of virtuous friendship extended over the centuries between Dante Alighieri and the contemporary reader. Chiefly, I explore ways Dante makes his readers complicit in the pilgrim’s own moral and spiritual journey toward the virtue of hope translated into the practice of prayer through a close, pedagogical reading of Inferno 3, Purgatorio 5, and Paradiso 20. I explore ways that Dante’s use of surprise, shock, misdirection, appeal to mystery, and retreat to silence creates a morally significant aporia of knowledge that serves as a laboratory for readers’ own virtuous transformation. I end with a critical assessment of the challenges involved in understanding the Comedy as virtuous friendship.

Another Look at the “Daily Office” in the Apostolic Tradition

The daily prayer practices outlined in the Apostolic Tradition, their origins, and even the number of prayer hours, have been points of dispute among scholars. However, new sources of the Apostolic Tradition, as well as work on lay ascetical movement in Egypt, call for the reevaluation of this document, its dating, provenance, and interpretation. This article argues that the Apostolic Tradition is a composite document, whose daily prayer cycle in its current form has been shaped by a third- or fourth-century lay ascetical movement in Egypt. The document appears to outline prayer at rising, followed by a communal service of catechesis and prayer, prayer at the third, sixth, and ninth hours, as well as prayer at bed and in the middle of the night. Given the difficulties in interpreting the document it is unlikely that the document, or at least the daily prayer practices outlined in it, were celebrated as written.

The Grammar of Prayer According to Origen: On Prayer as Technê Askêtikê

The Grammar of Prayer According to Origen:On Prayer as Technê Askêtikê John Solheid (bio) I. INTRODUCTION Catherine Chin has explored the role of grammar and grammarians in the construction of Christian concepts and discourse in late antiquity. She argued that through the teaching of language, Christian grammarians transformed literary concepts into explicitly religious concepts, transforming "linguistic work into incipient religious practice."1 Building on Chin's argument, Rebecca Krawiec explored John Cassian's use of grammar in constructing a monastic identity.2 The role of grammarians in constructing Christian discourse and practice thus provides an intriguing framework to understanding the aims of third-century theological treatises, such as Origen's On Prayer, Peri Euchês (PE), a text explicitly composed to inform the Christian practice of prayer for its readers. I will apply Chin's work on Christian grammarians of the fourth and fifth centuries to a reading of PE. I argue that both Origen's background as a grammarian and his ascetic values provided him with the literary skills and spiritual vision to construct an understanding of prayer for other ascetically-minded Christians. The confluence of these two worlds (grammar and ascesis) allowed Origen to develop a spiritual theology of prayer rooted in his exegesis of Scripture. However, PE should be considered more than a treatise on the practice of prayer. I argue that in PE, Origen provided his readers a language with which to talk about Christian asceticism. In other words, PE can be seen as a technê askêtikê: a set of rules for the Christian spiritual life. This paper will be organized into three parts. First, I will focus on several passages from PE highlighting Origen's grammatical work, in order to demonstrate how Origen's grammatical training informed his understanding of Christian prayer. In this section, I will focus specifically on Origen's grammatical exegesis of words and passages from Scripture. This will situate Origen's treatment of the subject of prayer within the context of his grammatical engagement with the biblical text. In the second section, I will focus on the first part of Origen's treatise, his response to certain "problems" pertaining to prayer. Responding to these problems formed the content and structure of the first [End Page 283] half of PE.3 Here, Origen constructed a definition of prayer itself. Third, I will focus on Origen's commentary on the Lord's Prayer, which formed the content and structure of the second half of PE, and argue that Origen transformed the Lord's Prayer into a device for his ascetic pedagogy. The combined picture will show the extent to which Origen's training as a grammatikos (grammarian) allowed him to use biblical texts to inform a life of Christian ascesis. II. A GRAMMAR OF PRAYER From Eusebius of Caesarea, it is known that Origen spent some of his young adult years as a teacher of grammar in Alexandria. After the martyrdom of his father, the "necessities of life" dictated that Origen needed an occupation to support his family. According to Eusebius, Origen "applied himself more eagerly to the training in literature, so that he had a considerable preparation in letters" (ἐϰθυμóτεϱον τε [ϰαὶ] μετὰ τὴν ἐϰείνου τελευτὴν τῇ πεϱὶ τοὺς λóγους ἀσϰήσει ὅλον ἐπιδοὺς ἑαυτὸν, ὡς ϰαὶ παϱασϰευὴν ἐπὶ τὰ γϱαμματιϰὰ μετϱίαν ἔϰειν).4 According to Ronald Heine, as a grammatikos, Origen would have taught grammar at the second level of a child's education. This would have entailed a grammatical study of the classical authors, such as Homer, Herodotus, Xenophon, and Thucydides.5 Raffaella Cribiore has demonstrated the tedious methods of grammatical scholarship in late antiquity. Of note was the grammarian's habit of deconstructing a text, or a passage, into its various components, leaving the text as a whole neglected.6 This microscopic parsing of a passage indicated that for the ancient grammarian, the text was understood according to the meaning of each of its individual units, not the units taken together as a whole. This is seen in the preface to Origen's PE. While introducing his readers to the subject of prayer, he immediately appealed to the passage from Romans 8:26 ("What we ought to pray for as we ought we do not know").7 In his interpretation of this passage, Origen immediately distinguished two individual units: "what...

Praying with the Senses: Contemporary Orthodox Christian Spirituality in Practice ed. by Sonja Luehrmann†

Reviewed by: Praying with the Senses: Contemporary Orthodox Christian Spirituality in Practice ed. by Sonja Luehrmann† Irina Paert Sonja Luehrmann†, ed. Praying with the Senses: Contemporary Orthodox Christian Spirituality in Practice. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2018. 264 pp. (illustrated). Following the ground-breaking volume edited by Chris Hann on Eastern Christianities from an anthropological perspective, this book is a step forward in the process of breaking with the stereotypes that surround Orthodoxy. It continues the program initiated by Hann in studying Eastern Christianity through ethnographic studies and provides a mature response to the challenges presented in the earlier studies. Focusing on prayer, eight authors engage in a fascinating conversation about various aspects of Orthodox approaches to communication with the divine, emphasizing the material, the practical, and the sensory. The volume engages in a subtle way with the dichotomies that characterize Western Christianity—individual versus communal, logos versus icon, ritual versus theology, institution versus charisma, and so on—dichotomies that are not issues for Eastern Christianity. The volume is exemplary of scholarly collaboration, evident in the ways parts of the book intersect with and cross-reference each other, suggesting effective dialogue and reciprocal learning. Vlad Naumescu draws on examples from his research on Greek Catholics in Ukraine, Old Believers, and the Malabars in India, borrowing the metaphor "mystery and mastery" from an Indian priest and exploring an ethical tradition of Orthodox faith that is passed not through moral prescriptions, but through tradition embodied in holy figures. Drawing parallels between the Protestant born-again experience and the renewal of faith among Orthodox, Naumescu emphasizes that tradition is "the primary source to draw on in order to flourish in the present and [it] provides scope for creativity, expanded agency and virtuous conduct" (45). In his study of the role of media for Orthodox in Greece, Jeffers Engelhard makes a distinction between the marked and unmarked mediation: while the former (electronic, broadcast, and digital media) normally requires spiritual discernment, the latter ("natural" media for Orthodox sounds and messages, such as incense-laden air, human voices and bodies, and bells) does not. He explores how, in Greece, in the moment of post-crisis austerity in 2013, the marked media manifested the "push back to church" for many younger generation Greeks. Angie Heo's contribution on icons in Egypt explores the centrality of the icon in personal identity. Icons are the visual tools for identifying the unknown, an aggregate of various signs of personal identity. She employs Peter Brown's concept of a holy man as a living icon to characterize the popular saintly figures and points out that, while on earth, the holy men and women hide their divine attributes from others to avoid turning the living icon into an idol. Luehrmann's own essay on reading prayers straddles the familiar dichotomies between the individual and the communal by focusing on the anthropology of reading set prayers. Finding a surprising parallel with the evangelical practice of speaking in [End Page 244] tongues, she argues that praying by the book offers "a shift to automatic thinking, marking sacred time and the simultaneous possibility of communal experience and private withdrawal" (136). Yet, unlike the charismatic prayer in tongues, the repetition of the words of people who prayed before brings believers together in a transtemporal community, connecting the living and the dead. The parts of the essay on the role of baptismal names, the importance of paraliturgical akathisto, and the lack of prayers for stillborn infants or those who have committed suicide are brilliant insights enriching Orthodox studies from an anthropological point of view. Jeanne Kormina's essay on practices of prayer in the context of what she calls "religious nomadism" stands out in this volume as she employs a clearly spelled-out model rather than metaphors, distinguishing the fixed, stable form of belief (with the focus on a territorial parish) from the "nomadic," fluid one represented by the pilgrims who believe without belonging. The competition of these two models is illustrated by a case study in which the "fixed" is represented by a priest, while the "nomadic" by Nadiezhda, an active female pilgrim. The process of domestication of Nadiezhda, a "nomadic believer," Kormina argues, occurred as she...

Prayer after Augustine: A Study in the Development of the Latin Tradition by Jonathan Teubner

Reviewed by: Prayer after Augustine: A Study in the Development of the Latin Tradition by Jonathan Teubner Adam Ployd Jonathan Teubner Prayer after Augustine: A Study in the Development of the Latin Tradition Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018 Pp. viii + 257. $88.00. The word "after" in the title of Jonathan Teubner's Prayer after Augustine ought not to be read as meaning simply "subsequent to" or "chronologically following." Rather, it should evoke the more substantial sense of "in the footsteps of" or "in the manner of." Teubner's monograph on prayer in the Augustinian tradition is not so much about how the practice or theory of prayer developed in the centuries immediately following the death of Augustine—although he devotes careful work to unearthing the legacy of Augustine in the writings of Boethius and Benedict—as it is about the way theological tradition is transmitted and adapted, the "kinematics," as he puts it. From this multi-layered study emerges an astute rendering of Augustine's understanding of prayer, a new approach to the early Augustinian tradition independent of the perennial Pelagian focus, and a theory of tradition that challenges the reigning options in modern theological ethics. The historical meat of Teubner's study is divided into two parts, each with four chapters. Part I examines how Augustine's understanding of prayer develops diachronically in his writings. Chapter One, "Learning to Pray," examines Augustine's earliest works, especially the Soliloquia, De moribus, and De magistro. Through these texts Teubner traces the development of Augustine's understanding of prayer from a Platonic reaching of the ratio toward God to a reflexive turning inward upon oneself as unknown. In Chapter Two, "Prayer as Acceptance of Time," Teubner demonstrates how Augustine comes to reject a view of immediate ascent in favor of an eschatologically fulfilled ascent whose temporal delay cultivates a purified desire through a life of patience in time. This argument develops through readings of De vera religione and De sermone Domini in monte that highlight the practices of scripture reading and communal prayer that embody and enliven [End Page 152] this theory. Chapter Three, "Prayer as Reception of the Other," fleshes out this vision of purifying prayer by unpacking Augustine's understanding of the totus Christus. Highlighting Augustine's use of the verb induere, Teubner focuses on the Enarrationes in Psalmos, through which he illustrates how prayer is both the means for incorporation into the totus Christus and the fruit of such incorporation, as Christian existence becomes defined by a dialectic of desire and patience nurtured by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Part I concludes with Chapter Four, "Prayer as the Hope of Wisdom," in which Teubner comes to Ep. 130 and the De trinitate. His reading turns upon two terminological pairs—scientia/sapientia and deprecari/precari—which he reads as mutually informing. Deprecari represents the prayer for purification while precari signifies the desire for participation in God. Scientia pairs with deprecari inasmuch as it is linked with the humility of Christ's incarnation, the very humility that Christians must take on (induere) if they are to reach the sapientia for which they desire (precari). Thus, Teubner concludes his analysis of Augustine's approach to prayer by highlighting not only the tension of desire and patience but also the virtue of hope that sustains the Christian within that life-long tension that is the life of prayer. In Part II, Teubner traces the influence of this Augustinian approach to prayer within the writings of Boethius and the Rule of St. Benedict. Each figure receives two chapters, one for what Teubner terms "Augustinianism 1" and another for "Augustinianism 2," categories he describes in the introduction: "Augustinianism 1 refers to the citation, reference, and particular allusion to a writing from Augustine's pen. . . . Augustinianism 2 is the use of certain general orientations and constellations of thought from Augustine without necessarily sharing specific doctrinal positions" (15). In chapter 5, "The Augustinianism 1 of the Opuscula sacra," Teubner argues that "Boethius' very mode or practice of inquiry is influenced by Augustine's use of prayer in De trinitate and Ep. 130" (128). That is to say, following Augustine, Boethius emphasizes the nature of prayer...

Factors shaping prayer frequency among 9- to 11-year-olds

This paper begins by reviewing the evidence from international research concerning the personal and social correlates of prayer frequency during childhood and adolescence. Overall these data continue to support the view that young people who pray not only report higher levels of personal wellbeing but also report higher levels of pro-social attitudes. These findings raise a research question of particular relelvance within church schools regarding the factors that predict higher levels of prayer activity among students. The Student Voice Project offers data that can illuminate this research question. Among the 3,101 9- to 11-year-old students who participated in the project 11% prayed daily, 9% at least once a week, 32% sometimes, 11% once or twice a year, and 37% never. The present paper tests the power of four sets of predictor variables to account for individual differences in prayer frequency among these students: personal factors (age and sex), psychological factors (using the three dimensional model of personality proposed by Eysenck), church attendance (self, mother, and father), and family discussion about prayer (mother, father, and grandparents). Multiple regression analyses identified discussion of prayer with mother as the single most important predictor. These findings locate the development of the practice of prayer within the home, even more than within the church.

Beyond Indulgences: Luther's Reform of Late Medieval Piety, 1518–1520 by Anna Marie Johnson

Reviewed by: Beyond Indulgences: Luther's Reform of Late Medieval Piety, 1518–1520 by Anna Marie Johnson Mary Jane Haemig Beyond Indulgences: Luther's Reform of Late Medieval Piety, 1518–1520. By Anna Marie Johnson. Early Modern Studies 21. Kirksville: Truman State University Press, 2017. 227 pp. This book began as a Ph.D. dissertation at Princeton Theological Seminary. Johnson examines Luther's early pastoral writings and thereby sculpts an alternative narrative of the early years (1517–1521) of the Reformation. Scholarship has traditionally focused on documents and events such as the Ninety-Five Theses (1517) and the Heidelberg Disputation (1518), and theological issues such as indulgences and papal primacy. In contrast, Johnson understands these years by analyzing Luther's reform of traditional Christian practices and focuses on twenty-five pastoral writings between 1517 and 1520. While treating a wide range of practices, these writings had a consistent focus on "sincere faith, trust in God's grace, and the willingness to suffer" (183). Chapter one examines relevant scholarship, the scholarly focus on the so-called "reformation discovery" and polemics, and recent interest in Luther as a pastoral theologian. It also provides background on late medieval Christian practices. Chapter two reviews the two years before the indulgence controversy (1516–1517), looking at, among others, the lectures on Romans and early comments on indulgences, as well as the Ninety-Five Theses. Johnson highlights Luther's "central concern for proper repentance" (57) and notes that "Luther's seemingly disparate conflict with Scholasticism and his protest against indulgences are woven together by his concern about the effects of Scholastic doctrine and Christian practice on the faith of believers" (59). Chapter three, on Lent 1518, examines how Luther [End Page 207] reformed Penance by emphasizing proper preparation—faith and a recognition of one's inclination to sin—rather than false confidence in successful completion of the work of Penance. It also examines Luther's criticism of relics, veneration of saints, and medieval prayer practices. Luther's emphases on the importance of faith, the need to recognize one's sinfulness, and the view that suffering is an essential part of Christian life are themes that also were important at the Heidelberg Disputation. Far from a sidelight, Luther's "concerns about practice appeared repeatedly, corresponded to themes he reiterated in other settings, and were woven into the fabric of his protest" (93). Chapter four, on summer 1518, discusses three pastoral writings produced between the Heidelberg disputation and Luther's meeting with Cajetan. While polemic and academic works, such as the Explanations of the Ninety-Five Theses, focused on penance and indulgences, these pastoral writings (a preface to German Theology, The Ten Commandments Preached to the People of Wittenberg, and an explanation of Psalm 110) took up less controversial themes. Johnson asserts that Luther's approach to questions of piety remained the same and no "seismic shift in Luther's thought" (110) occurred during summer 1518. Chapter five covers early 1519 to the Leipzig Debate. Issues of papal authority and indulgences were the major polemical issues in this period. But Luther also produced a work on the Ten Commandments and one on the Lord's Prayer, as well as five sermons and treatises on "a broad range of ecclesiastically endorsed devotional practices" (115). While offering instruction on such matters as contemplating Christ's passion, prayer, marriage, and good works, Luther articulated a litmus test for Christian practice "Anything that increased trust in God and service to the neighbor is proper Christian practice, while anything that diverted energies away from this goal and made one self-focused is to be discouraged" (140). Chapter six, fall 1519 to summer 1520, examines the period from the Leipzig Debate to Luther's excommunication, including sermons on Confession, Baptism, and the Lord's Supper, as well as A Sermon on Preparing to Die, a sermon on usury, and a sermon on good works. Johnson notes that in these months "Luther began to include intense criticism of the church hierarchy in his pastoral writings" and "began to criticize practices of enormous importance to the hierarchy" (178). [End Page 208] Johnson makes a convincing argument that practical issues played a foundational role in Luther's...