Prayer Research: Foundations, Review, and Agenda

Abstract

Prayer, defined as spiritual communication with God, is framed by religious/spiritual assumptions that serve as a foundation for prayer research. Prayer publication rates, exemplars of prayer research, and programs of prayer research are reviewed for the academic disciplines of communication, medicine, psychology, and sociology. Ideas for the future of integral prayer research are explored, including the development of a prayer inventory and an encyclopedia of prayer.

Keywords:

• Prayer
• Religion/Spirituality
• Communication
• Psychology/Sociology
• Medicine

Notes

1. Results from other national polling organizations such as the Pew Research Center, Gallup Poll, and the Baylor Institute show similar results for frequency of prayer among the U.S. population. See Association of Religion Data Archives (http://www.thearda.com) for specific comparisons.

2. Among the roll call of names who testify with their lives to the import of Religion/Spirituality in contributing to the flourishing of a meaningful and purposeful human life are: Zalman Schacter-Shalomi, Mahatma Gandhi, Dalai Lama, Pope John Paul II, Ken Wilber, Huston Smith, Thich Nhat Hanh, Black Elk, Thomas Keating, and Thomas Merton (Rifkin, 2002).

3. A review of prayer literatures in traditional “arts and humanities” disciplines (e.g., theology, philosophy, and art) are beyond the scope of the present review on social scientific prayer research. Expressive and interpretive literatures are vital to understanding prayer and deserve to be reviewed and integrated with the scientific research on prayer in future studies.

4. This section is not intended to be a comprehensive qualitative content analysis of the prayer research in each discipline in terms of authorship, journal citations, topics of research, types of methodologies, and so forth. Rather, the goal is to provide scholars in communication with a general sense of the types of prayer research and issues in which these disciplines are engaged.

5. A sample of the titles of these journals, from most to least frequent in their prayer publications, include: Journal of Communication and Religion, Quarterly Journal of Speech, Media Week, Text and Talk, Management Communication Quarterly, Journal of Media and Religion, and Journal of Computer Mediated Communication. The diversity of journals is compounded by the diversity of authorship with nearly every author publishing only a single prayer study.

6. Space does not permit the listing of the multitude of research articles for multiple authors, but two examples will suffice: (a) Ladd and his associates research on the cognitive aspects of prayer (e.g., Ladd et al., 2007; Ladd & McIntosh, 2008; Ladd & Spilka, 2002, 2006), and (b) Frances and his associates research on personality and prayer (e.g., Francis & Astley, 2001; Francis & Evans, 1995; Francis & Gibbs, 1996; Francis & Robbins, 2008).

7. For reviews of the prayer and health literature, see Larson & Larson (2003), McCaffrey, Eisenberg, LeGedza, Davis, & Phillips (2004), Masters & Spielmans (2007), and Wachholtz & Sambamoorthi (2011).

8. Pargament seldom uses the term “prayer” in describing religious coping items, but the potential connection to prayer for many of the religious coping items seems readily apparent. For example, prayer is a method that individuals may use to seek spiritual connection and support.

9. The sample table is necessarily brief and meant to illustrate one of many possible organizational structures for an encyclopedia of prayer. The original idea for an encyclopedia of prayer research came from Kyle Williams, an undergraduate student collaborator interested in the geography of prayer across religious traditions.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

E. James Baesler

E. James Baesler (Ph.D., University of Arizona) is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication and Theatre Arts of Old Dominion University