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Petitionary Prayer: a Response to Murray and Meyers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

David Basinger
David Basinger
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Roberts Wesleyan College, Rochester, New York 14624-1997
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Abstract

In a recent article in this journal, Michael Murray and Kurt Meyers offer us (among other things) two innovative and thought-provoking responses to the important question of why God would, even occasionally, refrain from giving us that which he can and would like to give us until we request that he do so: to help the believer learn more about God and thus become more like him and to help the believer realize she is dependent on God. I argue that neither explanation is adequate and thus that more work on this significant topic remains to be done.

Type
Research Article
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 31 , Issue 4 , December 1995 , pp. 475 - 484
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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References

1 Murray, Michael J. and Meyers, Kurt, ‘Ask and it Will be Given You’, Religious Studies, XXX (1994), 311–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 Murray and Meyers also touch briefly upon a response to the problem of self-directed petitioning offered by Eleonore Stump: that God at times refrains from granting requests until petitioned so as not to spoil or dominate us. For my response to this suggestion, and some thoughts on the problem of intercessory petitioning, see my ‘Why Petition an Omnipotent, Omniscient, Wholly Good God?’ Religious Studies, XIX (1983), 25–41.Google Scholar

3 Murray and Meyers, p. 319.

4 Ibid.

5 Ibid.

6 I am assuming that when Murray and Meyers make reference to God's will in this context, they are referring to what God values or that which is consistent with God's moral nature so I will use these terms interchangeably.

7 Ibid. p. 320.

8 Ibid. pp. 321–2.

9 Ibid. pp. 313–14.

10 Ibid. p. 318.

11 Ibid. p. 317.

12 Ibid. p. 324.

13 Ibid.