Prayer is a core component of the religious and spiritual life in many a tradition, yet a clean and straightforward presentation of prayer is often never taught and as a result, sorely lacking.

What I hope to do here is give a brief historical introduction to the subject of prayer, provide a typology, an overview, of the different types of prayer, next we’ll have a look at some of the philosophical and theological challenges facing prayer and some responses to those challenges, and end by opening a window to an entirely different kind of prayer.

How to Pray:    • The Art of Prayer: A Practical Guide  

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00:00 Intro to Prayer
01:07 Prayer, Historically
02:57 Types of Prayer
08:00 Challenges to Prayer
09:56 Responses
12:22 Mystical Prayer
14:56 Like a Child
15:52 Book Time

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Sources and Further Reading:
• Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, 1945, p. 251
• Alexander J. Hodge, Prayer and Its Psychology (New York), 1931
• Antti Alhonsaari, Prayer: An Analysis of Theological Terminology (Helsinki, 1973).
• Basinger, D. (1995) ‘Petitionary prayer,’ Religious Studies 31: 475–84.
• Bruce Ellis Benson, Norman Wirzba (eds.), The Phenomenology of Prayer. United Kingdom: Fordham University Press, 2005
• Brümmer, V. (1984) What Are We Doing When We Pray? London: SCM Press
• Carol and Zaleski Philip, (2006). Prayer: A History. Boston: Mariner Books. pp. 24–25.
• Charles Taliaferro, “Prayer,” in The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Religion, Routledge, 2012
• D. Z. Phillips, The Concept of Prayer (Routledge Revivals). United Kingdom, Taylor & Francis, 2014.
• Donald Brown, (1991). Human Universals. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
• Donald G. Bloesch, "Payer", Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, 2nd ed., 2001
• Friedrich Heiler, Prayer: A Study in the History and Psychology of Religion from the German theologian and historian of religion, 1932
• George Mavrodes, 1998, 'Prayer' In: Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Taylor and Francis,
• Gerardus van der Leeuw, Religion in Essence and Manifestation, (2 vols., translated by J. E. Turner (London, 1938), pp. 403–446.)
• Harold A. Carter’s The Prayer Tradition of Black People (Valley Forge, Pa., 1976)
• Immanuel Kant, Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason, 1792, p. 198
• Issler, K. (2001) ‘Divine providence and impetratory prayer,’ Philosophia Christi ns 3/2: 533–41
• Jerome Neyry, Give God the Glory, B. Eerdmans Publishing Co, Grand Rapids, 2007, p. 11.
• Margaret M Poloma and Brian F. Pendleton. 1991. The effects of prayer and prayer experiences on measures of general well-being. Journal of Psychology and Theology 19(1):71–83.
• Millard Erickson, Christian Theology, Baker Books, Grand Rapids, 2nd ed., 1998
• Murray, M. (2004) ‘God responds to prayer,’ in M. Peterson and R. Van Arragon (eds) Contemporary Debates in the Philosophy of Religion, Malden, MA: Blackwell
• Perry Le Fevre, Understandings of Prayer (Philadelphia, 1981).
• R. H. Coats, The Realm of Prayer, (London), 1920
• Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, “Mitzvas Haamanas Elokus” in Derech Mitzvosecha, Poltava, 1912
• Sam D. Gill, “Prayer,” (1987), in Encyclopedia of Religion, Second Edition, Lindsay Jones ed., 2005, p. 7368
• Scott Davison, Petitionary Prayer: A Philosophical Investigation, United Kingdom, Oxford, 2017
• Scott Davison, "Petitionary Prayer", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2021 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.)
• Simon Parker, “Divine Intercession in Judah,” in Vetus Testamentum, 56 no 1, 2006, p. 81-82.
• Stump, E. (1979) ‘Petitionary prayer,’ American Philosophical Quarterly 16: 81–91
• The Oxford Book of Prayer, edited by George Appleton and others (New York, 1985)
• Tzvee Zahavy “A New Approach to Early Jewish Prayer,” in History of Judaism, Baruch Bokser ed. (Calif., 1980), pp. 45–60.
• Ward, K. (1990) Divine Action, London: Collins
• William James, Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature, 1902, (pp. 359–371.)