Prayer is a phenomenon in the history of religion to which the science
of religion has devoted but little attention--the reason alleged being
that it is so simple and familiar as not to demand detailed study. It
may, however, be that the phenomenon is indeed familiar yet not simple.
Simple or not, it is a matter on which different views may be held.
Thus though it may be agreed that in the lower forms of religion it is
the accomplishment of desire that is asked for, a divergence of opinion
emerges {xvii} the moment the question is put, Whose desire? that of
the individual or of the community? And instances may be cited to show
that it is not for his own personal, selfish advantage alone that the
savage always or even usually prays. It is the desires of the
community that the god of the community is concerned to grant: the
petition of an individual is offered and harkened to only so far as it
is not prejudicial to the interests of the community. The statement
that savage prayer is unethical may be correct in the sense that pardon
for moral sin is not sought; it is incorrect, if understood to mean
that the savage does not pray to do the things which his morality makes
it incumbent on him to do, _e.g._ to fight successfully. The desires
which the god is prayed to grant are ordinarily desires which, being
felt by each and every member of the community, are the desires of the
community, as such, and not of any one member exclusively.
Charms, it has been suggested, in some cases are prayers that by vain
repetition have lost their religious significance and become mere
spells. And similarly it has been suggested that out of mere spells
prayer may have been evolved. But, on the hypothesis that a spell is
something in which no religion is, it is clear that out of it no
religion can come; while if prayer, _i.e._ religion, has been evolved
out of spells, then there have never been spells wholly wanting in
every religious element. Whether a given formula then is prayer or
spell may be difficult to decide, when it has some features which seem
to be magical and others which seem to be religious. The magical
element may have been original and be in process of disappearing before
the dawn of the religious spirit. Now, the formula uttered is usually
accompanied by gestures performed. If the words are uttered to explain
the gesture or rite, the explanation is offered to some one, the words
are of the nature of a prayer to some one to grant the desire which the
gesture manifests. {xviii} On the other hand, if the gestures are
performed to make the words more intelligible, then the action
performed is, again, not magical, but is intended to make the
words--the prayer--more emphatic. In neither case, then, is the
gesture or rite magical in intent. Dr. Frazer's suggestion that it
required long ages for man to discover that he could not always
succeed--even by the aid of magic--in getting what he wanted; and that
only when he made this discovery did he take to religion and prayer, is
a suggestion which cannot be maintained in view of the fact that savage
man is much more at the mercy of accidents than is civilised man. The
suggestion, in fact, tells rather against than in favour of the view
that magic preceded religion, and that spells preceded prayer.
The Australian black fellows might have been expected to present us
with the spectacle of a people unacquainted with prayer. But in point
of fact we find amongst them both prayers to Byamee and formulae which,
though now unintelligible even to the natives, may originally have been
prayers. And generally speaking the presumption is that races, who
distinctly admit the existence of spirits, pray to those spirits, even
though their prayers be concealed from the white man's observation.
Gods are there for the purpose of being prayed to. Prayer is the
essence of religion, as is shown by the fact that gods, when they cease
to be prayed to, are ignored rather than worshipped. Such gods--as in
Africa and elsewhere--become little more than memories, when they no
longer have a circle of worshippers to offer prayer and sacrifice to
them.
The highest point reached in the evolution of pre-Christian prayer is
when the gods, as knowing best what is good, are petitioned simply for
things good. Our Lord's prayer is a revelation which the theory of
evolution cannot account for or explain. Nor does Hoeffding's "antinomy
of religious feeling" present itself to the Christian soul as an
antinomy . . . 138-174
{xix}