Prayer as Conversation -- Martin Marty's Response

I posted excerpts from Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan, both of whom speak of praying to a non-interventionist God. Martin Marty doesn't get explicit about God's nature, but he does remind us of the centrality of the prayer of the community -- which from what I take from this, he considers to have priority to the prayers of the self.

I quote this in its entirety as it's brief:

Prayer Is Conversation

Do I pray? In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says (Matt. 6:5): "Don't tell." But since you asked: "Yes." When he visited a mosque, the Vatican once said, Pope John Paul II did not pray but he reverently "meditated." Anyone, believer or not, can meditate.

We usually reserve the term "pray" for focused address to the one whom Martin Buber identified as the "Thou." I see prayer as the implicit and often explicit confident communication between "Thou" and the one who prays.

Not good at "I" or "me" praying, I join the "we" of a believing community which helps us find words and thoughts that keep us mindful of the needs of others and of the call to be just and merciful. Amen.

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