Prayer as Process

Salah, the ritual prayer that forms one of the Five Pillars of Islam, is offered by the faithful five times a day. Mani wheels incorporate repetitive renditions of the prayer mantra Om Mani Padme Hum and are used by Tibetan Buddhists to evoke the blessings of Chenrezig, the embodiment of compassion. For over 5,000 years, prayer has been a foundational element of the Vedic faith system that has become Hinduism, its form ranging from ritual utterances to philosophical musings. Tefillot are the communal prayer recitations offered in the observance of Judaism. Christians were taught by Jesus to pray according to the manner of The Lord’s Prayer. Obviously a central feature of religious social systems, prayer encompasses a very special and in many instances highly structured form of social interaction. As such, it seems to us an extremely interesting element to be reflected in a model of social ecosystems.

Prayer comes in a variety of forms: mystical, praise, meditation, confession, and perhaps the most readily recognized form, petitionary prayer. All of the mechanisms represented in these various forms of prayer are present throughout the social ecosystems that we’ve thus far discussed. Mystical prayer maintains communication with the supernatural that we have associated in Chapter 7 with causality. Communal prayers of praise comprise an example of group ritual encompassing a state of ecstasy reinforcing shared trust in supernatural causes. Meditation, as we considered in some detail in Chapter 8, is a means for establishing trust through and with a process. Confession is a trust-based contributory mechanism to the handling of consequences in interactions. Finally, we consider perhaps the most intricate form of prayer: petitionary prayer. The particularity of petitionary prayer is that it presents itself in the form of an exchange transaction; consideration offered for consideration received. If such prayer entails an interaction with a deity, then it might be construed as placing a price tag on any ensuing actions by the deity. This depicts deities that form the prime source of causality as capable of being bought, so we clearly need to try to understand this form of prayer a bit better.

As we have come to understand it, a significant defining characteristic of all forms of prayer is that they are interactions that occur within the context of a covenant relationship. A covenant is an agreement or contract among two or more parties. Covenants come in two varieties: unconditional and conditional. In an unconditional covenant, one party makes a promise that offers consideration to another party with no reciprocal requirement for consideration from that party. A conditional covenant offers consideration from one party to another in exchange for some consideration in return. Within the context of a theistic social ecosystem, a covenant places a deity

The contents of ComputerTheology: Intelligent Design of the World Wide Web are presented for the sole purpose of on-line reading to allow the reader to determine whether to purchase the book. Reproduction and other derivative works are expressly forbidden without the written consent of Midori Press. Legal deposit with the US Library of Congress 1-33735636, 2007.