Krihtova Tatiana

Perception of the goals and effects of personal prayer by contemporary orthodox priests

Abstract

This article analyses the goals and motives of personal prayer of contemporary Orthodox priests. The analysis is based on interviews with 27 Orthodox priests of different age and working experience living in diff erent regions of Russia. Interviews were carried out in 2015–2018, their questions were related to the way of becoming a priest, daily practices and main tasks of the ministry. Personal prayer is a religious activity that is necessary for all Orthodox priests, but, unlike all their other actions (church service, conversations with parishioners, administrative activities), it is almost impossible for the researcher to observe and study from the outside. At the same time, for each person performing a prayer the purpose of reciting a prayer can be diff erent every time. The article describes four types of personal prayer of Orthodox priests that were mentioned in the interviews. We divided prayers according to its object: for God, for ourselves, for people, and for the world. In their stories about personal prayers, priests often defi ne them as a mandatory action. For the informants, prayer becomes, on the one hand, an action that determines their identity as priests (prayer is always successful, unlike other actions) and, on the other hand, the most basic action in their ministry, a minimum of communication with God, and a minimum of helping people, an element of communication and care which is available to the priest regardless of the kind and success of the actions that he performs at all other times.

Keywords

priests, Orthodoxy, daily routine of priests, interview, praying, prayer, Heiler, religious experience, field research, religious action

References

1. Aleksin K. (2017) “Uskol’zaiushchii sviashchennik: transformatsiia normativnogo diskursa RPTs o presviterskom sluzhenii” [Elusive priest: Transformation of normative discourse of Russian Orthodox Church on the priest’s ministry]. Svet Khristov prosveshchaet vsekh: Al’manakh Sviato-Filaretovskogo pravoslavno-khristianskogo instituta, vol. 24, pp. 136–169 (in Russian).
2. Blizzard S. W., Blizzard H. B. (1985) The protestant parish minister: A behavioral science interpretation. Storrs, CT.
3. Finney J. R., Malony H. N. (1985) “An empirical study of contemplative prayer as an adjunct to psychotherapy”. Journal of Psychology and Theology, t. 13, vol. 4, pp. 284–290.
4. Heiler F. (1932) Prayer: A study in the history and psychology of religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
5. Kiprian (Kern) (1957) Pravoslavnoe pastyrskoe sluzhenie [Orthodox pastoral ministry]. Paris (in Russian).
6. Konstantin (Zaitsev) (2002) Pastyrskoe bogoslovie [Pastoral theology]. Moscow (in Russian).
7. Krihtova T. (2018) “Metodologicheskie osobennosti polevogo izucheniia biudzheta vremeni pravoslavnykh sviashchennikov” [Methodological aspects of fi eld research of time management of Orthodox priests]. Religiovedcheskie issledovaniia, vol. 17, pp. 110–121 (in Russian).
8. Nastol’naia kniga sviashchennosluzhitelia. T. 8: Pastyrskoe bogoslovie (1988) [Handbook of the clergy. Vol. 8: Pastoral theology]. Moscow (in Russian).
9. Ob uchastii Russkoi Pravoslavnoi Tserkvi v reabilitatsii narkozavisimykh [On the patricipation of Russian Orthodox Church in rehabilitation of drud-addicts], available at: http://www.patriarchia.ru/db/text/2674661.html (12.12.2016) (in Russian).
10. Pylaev M. (2008) “Fenomenologiia molitvy: primitivnaia molitva” [Phenomenology of prayer: The primitive prayer”]. Vestnik Pravoslavnogo Sviato-Tikhonovskogo gumanitarnogo universiteta. Seriia I: Bogoslovie. Filosofiia, vol. 22, pp. 45–59 (in Russian).
11. Samarina T. (2016) “Fenomenologiia religii F. Khailera” [F. Heiler’s phenomenology of religion]. Vestnik Volgogradskogo Gosudarstvennogo Universiteta. Seriia 7: Filosofiia. Sotsiologiia i sotsial’nye tekhnologii, vol. 2 (32), pp. 22–33 (in Russian).

Information about the author

Krihtova Tatiana

Student status: Graduate student;
Place of study: St. Tikhon’s Orthodox University for the Humanities; 6/1 Likhov pereulok, Moscow 127051, Russian Federation;
Post: researcher;
ORCID: 0000-0003-2572-8316;
Email: krihtova@gmail.com.