Praying / Pastoral Care / Spirituality (original) (raw)
International Handbook of Practical Theology
ADutch newspaper reported thatthe sales of booksonpraying duringthe COVID-19 pandemic has increased compared to the previous year.B ased upon al ist of these bestsellers, the newspaper concludes that bookso np raying are hard to find and that our houseshavestartedtobecome more like monasteries.The crisis of the pandemic has indeeds parked urgent questions for many: 'what is the meaning of life?' 'what if Ib ecome ill?' or 'what happens when Id ie?'.P raying is ac entral feature of religion in general and of Christianityi np articular(Meyer-Blanck2019). This article is interested in exploring the following:When do people pray,what do people pray about,tow hom do people pray and what do people do when they pray? This practical-theological essayonp raying departs from two paradoxical observations.First,there is something distinctly religious about praying yetpraying is not an exclusively religious practice. Empirical studies in secular spirituality show adecrease in interest in prayer (Zuckerman, Shook,a nd Fuller 2017), but praying is not confined to those who affiliate with religion. Post-secular approaches view prayer as The placeintowhich Ipour my despair and out of which Idragmyoften elusive,often reluctant hope; it is the spaceintowhich Ispiral, as well as the connection that rescues me there; it is the transformative work in which Iamcompelled to engage […]. The connection Ifind in this placeis essential to my being, but what it is to/with/by which Ic onnect,Iam not able to say. (Vosper 2014,i ntroduction) OpenAccess. ©2 022T heo Pleizier,p ublished by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative CommonsA ttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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