Phenomenology of Prayer II

Lindsey Renoll

Blog Topic: Phenomenology of Prayer

When reading chapter six in Phenomenology of Prayer, the easiest part for me to understand is the portion about prayers being true in the way that people can be true to each other. When I read about this and when we then discussed it in class I stopped to think about it. In my opinion, I think of this as prayer helps a person be a better person. Someone who prays may be more understanding of those around them and of their individual project because they have talked to their God and learned how they should act in their world to be a positive project in a world full of individual projects. I could be completely wrong, but this is just my interpretation of this section of the book. 

This entire chapter talks about how prayer can positively influence someone’s way of life. Its biggest statement for me, aside from discussing how prayers are true in the way people can be true to each other, is that prayer rekindles the relationship between the creator and the creation. In the case of Christianity God is speaking to his follower to keep them on the right path in their world. For someone who is not religious, this statement makes it somewhat clear as to what religion is about. I would typically think of prayer as someone asking his or her god for something, making me to always believe it is a selfish act. However, after reading this section of the book I imagine that prayer is focused around someone finding help through who they believe is their creator to help them be a good person and a good project when thrown into a world full of other projects. Prayer does not nearly seem as unbelievable to me now. This also makes me think that whenever someone goes on a spiritual journey on the Appalachian Trail or Santiago they are going to get away from the negative influences so that they can grow in faith by getting time away from people so that they can grow in their relationship with his or her god and learn how to deal with the negative aspects of their lives.