Element contents
God and Prayer
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 March 2022
Summary
Are there good reasons for offering petitionary prayers to God, if God exists? Could such prayers make a difference in the world? Could we ever have good reason to think that such prayers had been answered? In this Element, the author will carefully explore these questions with special attention to recent philosophical discussions.
Keywords
- Type
- Element
- Information
- Online ISBN: 9781108974967Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication: 07 April 2022
References
Adams, Marilyn McCord and Kretzmann, Norman (1983). Predestination, God’s Foreknowledge, and Future Contingents. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett.Google Scholar
Aristotle, (2014). Nicomachean Ethics. Translated by Reeve, C. D. C.. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett.Google Scholar
Basinger, David (1983). Why Petition an Omnipotent, Omniscient, Wholly Good God? Religious Studies 19(1), 25–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benson, Herbert, Dusek, Jeffrey A., Sherwood, Jane B. et al. (2006). Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer (STEP) in Cardiac Bypass Patients: A Multicenter Randomized Trial of Uncertainty and Certainty of Receiving Intercessory Prayer. American Heart Journal 151(4), 934–42.Google Scholar
Bergmann, Michael (2009). Skeptical Theism and the Problem of Evil. In Flint, Thomas P. and Rea, Michael (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Philosophical Theology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 375–99.Google Scholar
Bergmann, Michael and Cover, Jan (2006). Divine Responsibility without Divine Freedom. Faith and Philosophy 23(4), 381–408.Google Scholar
Borland, Tully (2017). Omniscience and Divine Foreknowledge. In Matthew Braddock (ed.), Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. www.iep.utm.edu/omnisci/.Google Scholar
Brümmer, Vincent (2008). What Are We Doing When We Pray? On Prayer and the Nature of Faith. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Choi, Isaac (2016). Is Petitionary Prayer Superfluous? In Kvanvig, Jonathan (ed.), Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 168–95.Google Scholar
Cohoe, Caleb (2014). God, Causality, and Petitionary Prayer. Faith and Philosophy 31(1), 24–35.Google Scholar
Cohoe, Caleb (2018). How Could Prayer Make a Difference? Discussion of Scott A. Davison, Petitionary Prayer: A Philosophical Investigation. European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 10, 171–85.Google Scholar
Cupit, Geoffrey (1994). How Requests (and Promises) Create Obligations. Philosophical Quarterly 44, 439–55.Google Scholar
Davison, Scott A. (1991). Foreknowledge, Middle Knowledge, and “Nearby” Worlds.’ International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 30(1), 29–44.Google Scholar
Davison, Scott A. (2009). Petitionary Prayer. In Rea, Michael and Flint, Thomas P. (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Philosophical Theology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 286–305.Google Scholar
Davison, Scott A. (2017). Petitionary Prayer: A Philosophical Investigation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Davison, Scott A. (2018). Requests and Responses: Reply to Cohoe. European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 10(2), 187–94.Google Scholar
Davison, Scott A. (2021a). Prayer. In Goetz, Stewart and Taliaferro, Charles (eds.), Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Religion. Hoboken: John Wiley, 1963–70.Google Scholar
Davison, Scott A. (2021b). Prayer. In James Turner and James Arcadi (eds.), T&T Clark Companion to Analytic Theology. London: Bloomsbury, 489–97.Google Scholar
Davison, Scott A. (2021c). Randomness, Causation, and Divine Responsibility. In Clark, Kelly James and Koperski, Jeffrey (eds.), Abrahamic Reflections on Randomness and Providence. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 357–74.Google Scholar
Davison, Scott A. (2022). Petitionary Prayer and Pride. In Arcadi, James, Wessling, Jordan, and Crisp, Oliver (eds.), Analyzing Prayer: Theological and Philosophical Essays. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Deng, Natalja (2018). Eternity in Christian Thought. In E. N. Zalta (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2018/entries/eternity.Google Scholar
Dennett, Daniel C. (1984). Elbow Room: The Varieties of Free Will Worth Wanting. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Di Muzio, Gianluca (2018). A Collaborative Model of Petitionary Prayer. Religious Studies 54(1), 37–54.Google Scholar
Dougherty, Trent (2016). Skeptical Theism. In E. N. Zalta (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2016/entries/skeptical-theism.Google Scholar
Dougherty, Trent and McBrayer, Justin P. (2014). Skeptical Theism: New Essays. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Draper, Paul (2013). The Limitations of Pure Skeptical Theism. Res Philosophica 90(1), 97–111.Google Scholar
Ekstrom, Laura (2021). God, Suffering, and the Value of Free Will. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Embry, Brian (2018). On (Not) Believing That God Has Answered a Prayer. Faith and Philosophy 35(1), 132–41.Google Scholar
Falcon, Andrea (2019). Aristotle on Causality. In Zalta, E. N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-causality.Google Scholar
Finley, Kate (2019). Review of Davison, Scott A. (2017). Faith and Philosophy 36(3), 390–5.Google Scholar
Fischer, John Martin and Ravizza, Mark (1998). Responsibility and Control: A Theory of Moral Responsibility. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Flint, Thomas P. (1998). Divine Providence: The Molinist Account. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Frankfurt, Harry G. (1969). Alternative Possibilities and Moral Responsibility. Journal of Philosophy 66, 829–39. Reprinted in Frankfurt, Harry G. (1988). The Importance of What We Care About. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1–10.Google Scholar
Franks, W. Paul (2009). Why a Believer Could Believe that God Answers Prayers. Sophia 48(3), 319–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Furlong, Peter (2019). The Challenges of Divine Determinism: A Philosophical Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hájek, Alan (2018). Pascal’s Wager. In E. N. Zalta (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2018/entries/pascal-wager/.Google Scholar
Harris, William S., Gowda, Manohar, Kolb, Jerry W. et al. (1999). A Randomized, Controlled Trial of the Effects of Remote, Intercessory Prayer on Outcomes in Patients Admitted to the Coronary Care Unit. Archives of Internal Medicine 159(19), 2273–8.Google Scholar
Hasker, William (1989). God, Time and Knowledge. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Hasker, William (2009). Why Simple Foreknowledge Is Still Useless (In Spite of David Hunt and Alex Pruss). Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 52(3), 537–44.Google Scholar
Helm, Paul. (2014). Eternity. In Zalta, E. N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/encyclopedia/archinfo.cgi?entry=eternity.Google Scholar
Hill, Scott (2018). Aquinas and Gregory the Great on the Puzzle of Petitionary Prayer. Ergo 5(15), 407–18.Google Scholar
Howard-Snyder, Daniel (2010). Epistemic Humility, Arguments from Evil, and Moral Skepticism. In Kvanvig, Jonathan L. (ed.), Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion vol. 2. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 17–57.Google Scholar
Howard-Snyder, Daniel and Howard-Snyder, Frances (2010). The Puzzle of Petitionary Prayer. European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 2(2), 43–68.Google Scholar
Hunt, David P. (2009). The Providential Advantage of Divine Foreknowledge. In Timpe, Kevin (ed.), Arguing About Religion. New York: Routledge, 374–85.Google Scholar
Johnson, Daniel M. (2020). How Puzzles of Petitionary Prayer Solve Themselves: Divine Omnirationality, Interest-Relative Explanation, and Answered Prayer. Faith and Philosophy 37(2), 137–57.Google Scholar
Johnston, Mark (2019). Why Did the One Not Remain within Itself? In Buchak, Lara, Zimmerman, Dean W., and Swenson, Philip (eds.), Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion vol. 9. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 106–64.Google Scholar
Kraay, Klaas (2020). Does God Matter? Essays on the Axiological Consequences of Theism. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Mawson, Tim J. (2007). Praying for Known Outcomes. Religious Studies 43(1), 71–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mawson, Tim J. (2010). Praying to Stop Being an Atheist. International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 67(3), 173–86.Google Scholar
McGrew, Timothy (2019). Miracles. In Zalta, E. N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2019/entries/miracles/.Google Scholar
Molina, Luis de (2004). On Divine Foreknowledge: Part IV of the Concordia. Translated by Alfred J. Freddoso. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Mooney, Justin and Grafton-Cardwell, Patrick (under review). The Problem of Unanswered Prayer.Google Scholar
Murray, Michael J. and Meyers, Kurt (1994). Ask and It Will Be Given to You. Religious Studies 30(3), 311–30.Google Scholar
Nagasawa, Yujin (2017). Maximal God: A New Defence of Perfect Being Theism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Parker, Ryan Matthew and Rettler, Bradley (2017). A Possible Worlds Solution to the Puzzle of Petitionary Prayer. European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 9, 179–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pereboom, Derk (2001). Living without Free Will. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Pereboom, Derk (2014). Free Will, Agency, and Meaning in Life. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Pickup, Martin (2018). Answers to Our Prayers: The Unsolved but Solvable Problem of Petitionary Prayer. Faith and Philosophy 35, 84–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pruss, Alexander R. (2007). Prophecy without Middle Knowledge. Faith and Philosophy 24(4), 433–57.Google Scholar
Rice, Rebekah L. H. (2016). Reasons and Divine Action: A Dilemma. In Timpe, Kevin and Speak, Daniel (eds.), Free Will and Theism: Connections, Contingencies, and Concerns. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 258–76.Google Scholar
Rissler, James (2006). Open Theism: Does God Risk or Hope? Religious Studies 42(1), 63–74.Google Scholar
Rissler, James (2017). Open Theism. In Braddock, Matthew (ed.), Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. www.iep.utm.edu/o-theism/.Google Scholar
Salles, Ricardo (2012). Oikeiôsis in Epictetus. In Vigo, Alejandro G. (ed.), Oikeiôsis and the Natural Bases of Morality: From Classical Stoicism to Modern Philosophy. New York: Georg Olms Verlag, 95–119.Google Scholar
Smilansky, Saul (2012). A Problem About the Morality of Some Common Forms of Prayer. Ratio 25(2), 207–15.Google Scholar
Smith, Nicholas D. and Yip, Andrew C. (2010). Partnership with God: A Partial Solution to the Problem of Petitionary Prayer. Religious Studies 46(3), 395–410.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stump, Eleonore (1979). Petitionary Prayer. American Philosophical Quarterly 16(2), 81–91.Google Scholar
Talbott, Thomas (2009). God, Freedom, and Human Agency. Faith and Philosophy 26(4), 376–95.Google Scholar
Swinburne, Richard (1998). Providence and the Problem of Evil. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Taliaferro, Charles (2007). Prayer. In Meister, Chad and Copan, Paul (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Religion. New York: Routledge, 617–25.Google Scholar
Thornton, Allison (under review). Petitionary Prayer: Wanting to Change the Mind of the Being Who Knows Best.Google Scholar
Timpe, Kevin and Speak, Daniel (2016). Free Will and Theism: Connections, Contingencies, and Concerns. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Veber, Michael (2007). Why Even a Believer Should Not Believe that God Answers Prayers. Sophia 46(2), 177–87.Google Scholar
Wahlberg, Mats (2020). Divine Revelation. In Zalta, E. N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2020/entries/divine-revelation/.Google Scholar
Weil, Simone (1959). Waiting for God. Translated by Emma Craufurd. London: Fontana Books.Google Scholar
Whitcomb, Dennis, Battaly, Heather, Baehr, Jason, and Howard-Snyder, Daniel (2017). Intellectual Humility: Owning Our Limitations. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 94(3), 509–39.Google Scholar
White, Heath (2019). Fate and Free Will: A Defense of Theological Determinism. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Zagzebski, Linda (2017). Foreknowledge and Free Will. In E. N. Zalta (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2017/entries/free-will-foreknowledge.Google Scholar
Zimmerman, Michael J. (1985a). Sharing Responsibility. American Philosophical Quarterly 22, 115–22.Google Scholar
Zimmerman, Michael F. (1985b). Intervening Agents and Moral Responsibility. Philosophical Quarterly 35, 347–58.Google Scholar
- 4
- Cited by