Phenomenology of Prayer - Blog #2

Prayer as Kenosis

Prayer has been used for centuries by many different religions, as a way of communicating. The bible, Philippians 4:6 reads "Don't be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." This chapter, James R. Mensch states that when people attempt to submit prayers most common form, petition, we run into difficulties. Mensch says, "All too often we pray for things, such as victory or gaining a desired position, and forget that their are losers in such competitions." As relating to the first chapter of Phenomenology of Prayer, this passage reminds us of how one prays when learning. When we are children, first learning to pray, we pray for things like a new puppy, or a bike. These things are not something that God usually grants, unlike forgiveness and enlightenment. Praying like this, is what a woman named René Girard coins as getting caught in the "mimetic violence." According to Girard, our socialization involves us imitating others that we interact with. This often causes us to desire the same things that others do, causing us to compete with them, often in violent ways. Mensch also states that our focus on objects in petitionary prayer also seems to trap us within what is called an "earthly economy." James states that he believes that these problems can be resolved if we can see prayer as the attempt to provide a space where the sacred can appear. The key concepts are kenosis and incarnation. Kenosis is a spiritual release of sorts or self-emptying, usually happened upon through prayer and releasing ones problems to God. Mensch tries to answer the question of "How can we ask for things and not be trapped in an 'earthly economy'?" by examining prayer phenomenology in terms of the sacred. 

Two Concepts of the Sacred

1. Phenomenology is the study of appearing, but the sacred seems to signify what cannot appear.

The Israelites believed that no one can see God face to face and live. 'Earthly economy' is a system of exchange through  which things come to us. Mensch uses our bodies and their organic needs as an example. 

2. Sense of the the sacred as coming into the world by incarnating itself. 

Mensch says that the most striking example of incarnation is Christ. "In its specifically Christian sense, incarnation involves the notion of kenosis, that is, of God in Christ emptying himself and taking on the form of a slave (Phil 2:7)." 

When Christ was sent to the earth by God, he had to, as Paul put it, take on the form of a slave" and identify himself with the powerless and condemned. This is what needed to be done to complete the goal that God had for Jesus, to be outside the earthly economy. This self-emptying or kenosis, came to a completion with Jesus' death on the cross.