Problematic and pathogenic communication patterns in prayers.

Many have viewed prayer as a form of communication (e.g. Phillips, 1965, p.30: "When a believer prays, he talks to God"; see also Heschel, 1953, p. 170, regarding "the gift of addressing God"). In what follows I will point out several pathogenic patterns in this unusual type of communication by analyzing some prayers of the three monotheistic religions, and by paying special attention to logical, rather than psychological, problems (cf. Moore, 1995). I will use as sources a variety of prayer books and hymnals, as well as the scriptures regarded as holy by practitioners of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. (Selections from these scriptures appear in the daily prayers of millions of believers around the world.) In my analysis I will disregard complex theological arguments about the proper interpretation of liturgy. Instead, my interest lies in the simple, straightforward content that reaches believers who recite their daily prayers, repeat the same message thousands of times, and thus continuously reinforce a pattern of "semantic pathology." Neither will I do more than mention in passing the fundamental contradictions, inconsistencies, and paradoxes inherent in the very concept of religion, well summed up in Tertullian's Rule of Faith: "I believe because it is impossible." While this 2nd century Christian's credo refers specifically to the virgin birth, it applies, no less, to other cornerstones of various religions, such as the miracles recounted in the Jewish Bible, in the New Testament and in the Koran, the doctrine of transubstantiation, the Koran's insistence on the existence of Djinn, or the eschatological visions of the three religions under discussion.

Word Magic

Mistaking words for deeds (or maps for territories; see Korzybski, 1958) provides the basis of a type of parataxic (as in Sullivan, 1953, p.29) thought process, frequently encountered in highly stratified human encounters; it lies behind both the offering and the acceptance of flattery, phoney politeness, forced apologies etc. In all of these postures the speaker behaves as if the utterance of words alone would suffice and materially change a given situation. No wonder, then, that we recognize a similar pattern in the anthropomorphic projections of religion, as well. The magical power assigned to words comes to the fore especially in some laudatory, rather than petitionary prayers. When believers recite one of the following formulae, they engage, at best, in wishful thinking:

"The Lord is gracious, his mercy is everlasting." (BCP (Book of Common Prayer), 1968, p. 11.)

"God is my strong salvation; / What foe have I to fear? / In darkness and temptation / My light, my help is near." (Baptist, (The Baptist Hymn Book) 1962, # 575.)

Every one of the Koran's 114 chapters starts with the words: "In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful."

"And gracious is He to those who return to Him." (Koran 17: 2.)

"... for thou hearkenest in mercy to the prayers of thy people Israel. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who hearkenest unto prayer." (From the Morning Service, Hertz, 1959, p. 147; see also Service, 1967, p.52.)

"May every living being thank You; may they praise and bless Your great name in truth for You are the God who saves and helps us." (Assembly, 1977, p.179.)

Circular Reasoning and Other Logical Conundrums

In the same way that a schizophrenic's garbled thoughts constitute an adaptive response to an impossible, double-binding situation (see below), believers must make the best of the irrational system in which they participate. Indeed, one may very well question the applicability of the rules of logic to religion (despite the occasional claim which makes reason itself an aspect of the deity). In her analysis of Islamic prayers, Padwick (1961, p.266) came close to this conclusion, deeming the following petition illogical, and "impelled by a deeper logic of the heart":

"O God I did not sin through boldness towards Thee nor through a light estimate of Thee. But Thy Pen caused it to happen and Thy command effected it, and Thy knowledge was aware of it, and there is no might nor power save with Thee, and my apology is before Thee, O Most Merciful of the merciful."

Though Padwick singled out the above prayer, she could have pointed at many others, as well, in order to illustrate weak, self-serving logic. In addition to further examples found in her collection, I bring here some from additional sources. One can find here fallacies of various sort: circular reasoning, non-sequitur, false premise, false analogy, etc.

"...for how can he deny me heaven who here on earth himself hath given?" (Mayhew, 1989, # 381.)

"Hadst Thou not willed the attainment of what I seek in my request Thou wouldest not, by an infusion from Thy generosity, have inspired me to ask it." (Padwick, 1961, p.270. All prayers quoted from this source originate in prayer-manuals, collected by the author.)

"My God, Thou art the Forgiving One and I the sinner and who will show mercy on the sinner save the Forgiving One?" (Padwick, 1961, p. 190; see also p.203.)

"One of the generous acts of the noble is compassionate kindness to captives, and I am a captive through my crime, the captive of my criminality, bound by my own deeds." (Padwick, 1961, p. 191.)

"If we are powerless to avoid a sin which Thou hast written down for us, Thou art powerful to forgive us for it." (Padwick, 1961, p.202.)

"Thou are my Lord, I thy servant. I have wronged myself and I confess my sin. Forgive me then all my sins, for there is none that forgiveth sins save Thee." (Padwick, 1961, p. 192; see also p.201.)

"For this is the law of creation: only by love can man hope to live." (Service, 1967, p.93.)

In a special class of such logically troublesome prayers, believers make the deity itself responsible for making them tow the line. A powerful paradox lies behind this line of thought, for the abandonment of one's will (required by each of the three religions under consideration) leads to a lack of responsibility for one's deeds.

"Lead us not into temptation." (The Lord's Prayer, BCP, 1968, p. 12.)

"O come and reign, Lord Jesus, / Rule over everything; / And keep me always loyal / And true to Thee, my King." (Baptist, 1962, # 439.)

"Grant that this day we fall into no sin." (BCP, 1968, p.14.)

"The power to restrain from sins, and the ability to do good deeds is with Allah alone..." (Azam, 1984, # 16. All the prayers quoted from this source originate either in the Koran or in one of the traditional hadith collections.)

"O' Allah! Portion out for us such fear of Thee as will keep us from disobeying Thee." (Azam, 1984, # 54.)

"Cause us when we hear the Call to Prayer to turn ourselves exclusively to Thy mercy." (Padwick, 1961, p.32.)

"Give us a portion of the holy fear of Thee that will be a barrier between us and disobedience." (Padwick, 1961, p.179.)

"Cause us to cling to Your commandments." (Service, 1967, p.41.)

Contradictions also belong to the general class of logical fallacies. In view of their synchronic and diachronic diversity, the abundance of contradictions and inconsistencies in the Judeo-Christian and Islamic scriptures should surprise no one. A few short examples, with each pair of quotations drawn always from the same source, will serve to illustrate the point; Kedar (1994) and others (e.g. Kaufmann, 1961; see also the classic work of Spinoza, 1670/1862) have written extensively on this topic.

One prayer asks to "learn to love and bless our persecutors" (BCP, 1968, p.56);

vs.

another that asks for victory over enemies (pp.39-40).

About the Sovereign: "strengthen her that she may vanquish and overcome all her enemies" (BCP, 1968, p. 14);

vs.

"...we forgive them that trespass against us..." (Lord's Prayer, BCP, 1968, p.4.)

"Endure then with patience ... and be not grieved about the infidels, and be not troubled at their devices." (Koran 16: 128);

vs.

"And when the sacred months are passed, kill those who join other gods with God wherever ye shall find them; and seize them, besiege them, and lay wait for them with every kind of ambush..." (Koran 9: 5; see also 9: 29, 9: 124.)

"For thou delightest not in sacrifice, else would I give it: thou takest no pleasure in burnt offering." (Hertz, 1959, p.331, from Psalm 51: 16);

vs.

verse 19 of the same psalm: "Then wilt thou delight in sacrifices of righteousness, in burnt offering and whole burnt offering..." (p.333). The editor of this prayer book was clearly bothered by the above inconsistency, for in his footnote he writes: "There is no contradiction between this verse and v. 19." But his saying so (another, minor, example of word magic) does not make it so.

"I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation..." (Hertz, 1959, p.243, from Exodus 20: 5; Deuteronomy 5: 9; also in BCP, 1968, p.238; cf. Service, 1967, p.456.)

vs.

"The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin." (Hertz, 1959, p.242, from Deuteronomy 24: 16.)

"Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the 70 elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel... they saw God, and they ate and drank." (Exodus 24:9-11.)

vs.

"...No-one may see me and live." (Exodus 33: 20.)

Some contradictions reside within the same prayer:

"Have compassion upon our weakness, and give us those things which for our unworthiness we dare not, and for our blindness we cannot ask..." (Alternative, 1980, p. 106.)

"My God, Thy longsuffering in regard to my constant criminal acts encourages me to ask Thee for that to which I have no right." (Padwick, 1961, p. 191.)

Tautologies

Believers must know from experience that the deity does not necessarily respond to every prayer or fulfil every request. Many theologians have attempted to deal with the problem "Does God answer prayers?" (See, inter alia, Berkovits, 1962, pp.87-100; James, undated, pp.82-85; Phillips, 1965, pp. 117-120.) A very simple solution to this dilemma appears in some tautological prayer formulae, which essentially cover all possible outcomes. (For another type of tautology see G. Margoliouth's apologetic comment in his Introduction to the Koran, 1909, p.ix.)

"If it shall be thy pleasure to prolong his days here on earth... or else receive him into those heavenly habitations..." (From The Visitation of the Sick, BCP, 1968, p.320.)

A certain Koranic saying will make the sick recover "provided that death has not been decided upon the patient." (Azam, 1984, # 9.) Reciting once a day another prayer results in the person seeing his house in paradise before his death, "provided the meaning has been understood." (Azam, 1984, # 18.)

"No believer makes a petition without its being answered, either swiftly in this world, or delayed till the next." (Padwick, 1961, pp.265.)

"Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land..." The editor adds in a footnote: "This is not always seen in the life of the individual." (Herz, 1959, p.245.)

Manipulations

Manipulators attempt to control their collocutors by artful, insidious means, so as to gain some personal benefit. (See Satir, 1972, for four different types of manipulative communication patterns.) In social encounters involving this communication device one has to exercise caution, for the audience must not know about the game played by the manipulator. All the more surprising, therefore, appear the following attempts to make the deity answer the believers' prayers by an appeal to its pride.

"Restore, O Lord, the honour of your name!" (BBC, 1997, #21.)

"For the glory of thy Name..." (From The Litany, BCP, 1968, p.37.)

"Be kind to us with a kindness that befits Thy Majesty and Thy generosity." (Padwick, 1961, p.266.)

"O grant our request for the sake of thy holy name, and not for our sake. 'Not unto us, O Lord! Not unto us; but unto thy own name give glory... Wherefore should the nations say, Where then is their God?'" (Gaster, 1959, p. 199.)

"Do it for the sake of thy Name, do it for the sake of thy power, do it for the sake of thy holiness, do it for the sake of thy Torah." (In the Morning Service, Hertz, 1959, p.157 and elsewhere.)

Double Binds

In several types of communication the sender, for reasons of its own, appears to make a serious effort to mystify the receiver. Bateson's double-bind theory (Bateson, 1972; see also Bateson, Jackson, Haley, & Weakland, 1956), which relates a dysfunctional communication pattern to the development of schizophrenia, describes the most severe type of such obscuring. Senders of double-bind messages obscure their intentions by sending contradictory, confusing statements. The following examples contain either a direct double binding message or an implied one; in all of them the message leaves its receiver perplexed.

Seek out and enjoy troubles and sickness: "And there should be no greater comfort to Christian persons, than to be made like unto Christ, by suffering patiently adversities, troubles, and sicknesses." (From The Visitation of the Sick, BCP, 1962, p.315.)

Remember, while getting married, that god prefers celibacy (though he has withheld from you the talent for it): Matrimony "was ordained against sin, and to avoid fornication; that such persons as have not the gift of continency might marry... [and] for the mutual society, help, and comfort, that the one ought to have of the other... Into which holy estate these two persons come now to be joined." (From the Solemnization of Matrimony, BCP, 1968 p.302.)

Sinning will make god happy: "Had you not sinned and asked forgiveness, God would have brought another people that sinned and asked forgiveness, so that He might forgive them." (Padwick, 1961, p.205.)

The Bliss of Ignorance

In several prayers we discover that we cannot take for granted either the need or the freedom to ask questions; instead, we witness a rejection of communication, a renouncing of the will to understand.

"The Lord knows all your needs before you ask. Only trust in him for he will do the task of bringing in your life whatever you must know." (Mayhew, 1989, # 123.)

"God moves in a mysterious way / His wonders to perform." (Baptist, 1962, # 53.)

"Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, / But trust Him for His grace." (Baptist, 1962, # 53.)

"All laud to Him the depth of whose eternal greatness is unthinkable by the minds of men." (Padwick, 1961, p. 73.)

"I take refuge with Thee O God from unprofitable knowledge..." (Padwick, 1961, p.90.)

The pursuit of ignorance has a solid basis in the religions under discussion: By proclaiming a single truth (naturally different from each other), all three sources tend to either discourage debate, or permit it only as long as their basic dogmas remain safe. This absolutism (see, for example, a modern existential theologian's total rejection of "a relativism which does not acknowledge absolute ethical demands and absolute truths," Bultmann, 1960, p.42) flies directly in the face of contemporary relativistic, constructivist thought (e.g. von Glasersfeld, 1987, 1996.)

"Whosoever will be saved: before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholick Faith. Which Faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled: without doubt he shall perish everlastingly." (From the Morning Prayer, BCP, 1968, p.27.)

"They also are to be had accursed that presume to say, That every man shall be saved by the Law or Sect which he professeth..." (Article of Religion #18, BCP, 1968, p.619.)

"I am commanded to make war on mankind till they say La ilaha illa 'llah" (meaning "There is no god but Allah"; Padwick, 1961, p.56.)

"The Koran is the perfect truth" (Gibb, 1975, p.40.)

"I believe with perfect faith that the prophecy of Moses ... was true, and that he was the chief of the prophets, both of those that preceded and of those that followed." (Principles of Faith #7, Hertz, 1959, p.253.)

Conclusion

While philogenetically the observation of everyday human behavior must have shaped the gradually evolving concepts of deity, from an ontogenetical point of view, religion exerts its effects on human interactions. When endlessly repeated, such prayers as I have mentioned cannot but influence one's thought processes, and place their mark on the style of inter- and intragroup communication.

The above list of pathogenic communication patterns contains but a limited selection, for the scriptures may serve as a practically inexhaustible source for further examples of dysfunctional communication. I ask readers not to misinterpret my conclusion: The scriptures and prayer books of the three monotheistic religions contain much more than examples of pathogenic communication. Just as one can find in them positive, commendable values, alongside with negative, deplorable ones, so do they illustrate functional, as well as dysfunctional communication patterns. Though not a major purpose of this article, this state of affairs constitutes strong evidence for the highly heterogeneous nature of each source.

REFERENCES

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