Research Themes

New Directions in the Study of Prayer will consider proposals in four broad yet focused areas of inquiry. Each research theme considers prayer as a practice, an event, and a cultural object that can be studied empirically and with a range of research methods and analytical approaches. Both discipline-specific and interdisciplinary proposals will be encouraged.

Prayer, Virtues, and Human Flourishing ― Prayer is often studied in the social and natural sciences as an instrumental activity engaged in for personal benefits, such as health and emotional well-being, and as a particular form of “communication,” but far less is known about the role of prayerfulness as a potential source of virtue and a vehicle of moral or ethical development. Research in this thematic area will consider the relationship between prayer and specific virtues, and ask how prayer may serve either to constrain or to enable ethical development and human flourishing.

  • How does prayer shape or mediate virtuous behavior or the practice of particular virtues (for example, joy, humility, and self-discipline)?
  • How do distinct prayer practices (bodily techniques, disciplines, and related instruments) align with specific virtues and models of human flourishing?
  • What models of virtuous or ethical communication (between humans, or between humans and the divine) are learned through different kinds of prayer?
  • How does the experience of prayer shape conceptions and manifestations of creativity and ingenuity?

Prayer in Social and Institutional Contexts ― More than a merely solitary activity, prayer is frequently practiced in groups and employed in various forms of religious education, and conceptions of its meaning, emotional value, and proper execution have developed along with the evolution of religious traditions, communities, and institutions. Research in this thematic area will concentrate on the social and institutional dynamics that relate to and shape—or are shaped by—prayer.

  • Does participation in group prayer change or reinforce participants' views of their role in society and potential for action in it?
  • How do practices of prayer articulate with, enforce, or alter shared understandings of specific social obligations?
  • How does setting shape the phenomenological aspects and the physical, or sensory, experience of prayer?
  • How do communities determine the relative worth of variant types of prayer and the different virtues associated with them?

Comparative Perspectives ― Contemporary practices of prayer are informed by an array of distinct but intersecting religious traditions and have been shaped by far-reaching social and historical changes. Research in this thematic area will investigate the spread and relation of different forms of prayer, analyzing the processes and mechanisms through which forms and habits of prayer have been adopted, adapted, and transformed, and assessing the consequences and effects of these trajectories for contemporary understandings and practices of prayer.

  • How, and to what effect, are practices of prayer iterated through their transmission in time and across cultural and geographical boundaries?
  • How have practices, understandings, and representations of prayer changed in the recent past, and with what effects on the bodies, emotional states, or spiritual experiences of those who pray?
  • How do changes in communication technologies and forms of social mediation influence prayer and social understandings of its efficacy?
  • How have contemporary understandings and practices of prayer been shaped by large-scale social changes, political and intellectual transformations, and scientific developments?

Cognitive and Psychological Perspectives ― Much prior research on prayer has focused on questions related to the efficacy of intercessory prayers and patterns of brain activation during either prayer or meditation, while further efforts have focused on identifying how and why people pray. Research in this thematic area will seek to creatively move beyond these initial observations to provide new perspectives on the physiological and psychological components of prayer as well as prayer’s role in moral development and ethical formation.

  • How is prayer similar to or different from other intensive mental activities?
  • Does the particular form of prayer practiced determine prayer’s cognitive, psychological, or physiological effects?
  • How do the physiological and socio-cultural dimensions of prayer influence one another?
  • What kinds of mental or cognitive functions are developed or diminished as individuals adopt sustained prayer practices, and how robust is the correlation between prayer and the development of such functions?