The significance of Prayer and its healing power. Cover Image

The significance of Prayer and its healing power.
The significance of Prayer and its healing power.

Or, playing Go with God

Author(s): Cosmin Tudor Ciocan
Subject(s): Theology and Religion, Comparative Studies of Religion, Philosophy of Religion
Published by: EDIS- Publishing Institution of the University of Zilina
Keywords: religious pluralism; meditation; contemplation; religious practice; mindfulness; ritualization; interfaith; religiousness;

Summary/Abstract: All the religious traditions raise endless prayers for living aids, those spread all over human lives. Without the hope that in all our needs and trials we have ‘someone’ to second us, so powerful that can help us overcome anything that stands in our path (more accurate 'against our wish'), most religious traditions would not be given any consideration, for humans become religious mostly when falling into a trial of life. By this hope religiousness flourishes and religious offer develops. Still, there is another way of considering prayer, one of spiritual becoming, diverse, and at the same time equally tender. It doesn’t offer goods, or aids, or anything specific, instead, it is professed by many spiritual persons that stood in the divine’s company. Theologians call it apophasis, spiritualists call it contemplation. Non-believers assert that the ‘responses’ of prayers followed by the ‘altering’ of reality is merely a mental projection, a Placebo effect of believing in prayer’s effect, or even just a mere coincidence. Either way, we need to learn prayer’s genuine significance and what it really provides. As for the subtitle, it is an allusion to the ancient game of Go whose main skill is to 'know' in advance tens, hundreds, or even infinite moving variables with their follow-ups, so you can be prepared and have a prepared answer every time to any move the teammate would make.

  • Issue Year: 7/2020
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 75-85
  • Page Count: 11
  • Language: English