Why do We Pray? Or What is the Purpose of all this Kneeling, Rocking and Hand Waving Anyways? (original) (raw)
Related papers
International Journal of Practical Theology, 2012
The command to pray invites believers to critically engage with their broken reality with a view of transforming it in the light of the new reality in which they participate in Christ. Practical theology, operating in the context of the bi-polar and tense relationship between theory and praxis, should be expanded to accommodate prayer as the inner mode of its operations to embrace the existential dimension of the faith praxis, instead of simply limiting itself to a socio-scientific empirically based descriptive paradigm. This implies that practical theology has to be embedded within the church as the domain of faith. Prayer, understood within the context of practical theology, offers a critique of theological theories that do not adequately address the implications for God, the world and believers inherent in the new anthropological status that the invitation to pray confers on those who pray. Prayer also critiques the existing praxis in three ways: it is, firstly, a transformational act in itself; it, secondly, acknowledges its own inadequacy to accomplish the needed transformation and is thus able to critique its own methodologies and practices; and, thirdly, it continues to hope for the transformation of the existing praxis based on the promise of the presence of God in and through the Spirit of Christ in the church. In looking beyond the existing praxis to God, believers are called to continually work and pray for signs of the coming Kingdom to be realised within their world. (English)
Effect of the Preparation Methodof Al–Mg–O Catalysts on the Selective Decomposition of Ethanol
Monatshefte Fur Chemie, 2002
Selective decomposition of ethanol was used as a test reaction at 350°C to evaluate the catalytic activity of two Al–Mg–O mixed oxides prepared by two different methods (wet impregnation and coprecipitation). The catalyst precursors were examined by TG and DTA and were calcined between 500–900°C for 5 h in air. The surface area of all catalysts was measured by N2 sorption using the BET method. The total acidity and basicity were determined by TPD using pyridine and formic acid. The catalysts were characterized by XRD analysis. It was found that the preparation method of Al–Mg–O catalyst has a great effect on the selective decomposition of ethanol. Al–Mg–O (I) catalysts, prepared by wet impregnation, were more selective towards ethene formation during dehydration of ethanol. This is ascribed to their high total surface acidity. On the other hand, Al–Mg–O (II) catalysts, prepared by coprecipitation, were highly selective in the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethanol to yield acetaldehyde. This could be attributed to their high concentration of basic sites. In addition, the production of traces of diethyl ether was also observed (three times more for Al–Mg–O (II) than for Al–Mg–O (I)).