What are We Doing When We Pray?: A Philosophical Inquiry

What do we do when we ask things of other people, when we thank them or praise them, when we express penitence for what we have done to them and ask their forgiveness? And how does doing these things in relation to God differ from when we do them in relation to other people? And what does this entail for the existence and nature of the God to whom we pray?This revised and extended edition of Vincent Brummer's classic book on prayer published in 1984, provides a comprehensive philosophical analysis of central issues associated with the nature and practice of prayer. Serving as a valuable core text for students, this book also contributes to a number of current debates in theology and philosophy of religion: the debate on realism and religious belief, the debate on the rationality of faith and the nature of theology, the debate on the relation between religious belief and morality, the debate on the relation between science and religion and the lively debate among evangelical Christians in America on the 'openness of God'.This new edition adds significantly to the current academic interest in spirituality with three newly written chapters showing that arguments in the book have important implications for the nature of spirituality, of faith and religious belief, and of theology. Spirituality is not aimed at achieving religious 'experiences' or mystical 'knowledge' about God; it is primarily aimed at attaining the religious form of life and at coming to see the world in the light of faith. Religious belief is not merely a cognitive enterprise like science; it cannot be divorced from spirituality and the life of faith, and is therefore fundamentally existential and not merely intellectual.