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Rediscovering prayer
How to assimilate the modern perspectives of evolution and depth psychology into a world view that includes prayer.
180 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 28, 2019
I bought this 1972 book because it was referenced in "The Jesuit guide to everything" by Fr James Martin, SJ, and also because prayer is probably the most important part of my spiritual life, so I welcome any input that can help me enrich my experience of prayer.
About the author - he died in 1995. While a student at Harvard, John Yungblut asked his favorite preacher what was universal in religion? Where would he find it? Rufus Jones answered, “For that, my son, you must study the mystics.” From that, he was a lifelong student of the mystical approach to religious experience and of the ideas of C. G. Jung and Teilhard de Chardin. He aspired to be an advocate for the mystical heritage in Christianity, up-dated by Jung’s myth of the psyche and Teilhard’s myth of cosmogenesis, a universe still being born.
I found this 180 pages book to be very useful, practical and infused with wisdom. This is the thing about prayer: they just don't teach you how to do it (or has that changed in today's schools?). In my elementary school, praying was a boring, mechanical thing. Later on, when in high school I would have been more receptive to a more mature religious education, that just did not happen.
So - if that's what happens in other schools or families too - the result is that most people who pray end up using only the basic "petitionary" prayer, which is: "God help me with my exam tomorrow", "Please cure my illnes", "Please get me that promotion", etc etc. As a kid, as soon as you realize that it's not leading to the results you are hoping for, you often throw away the whole "religion" thing. But petitionary prayer does not even scratch the surface of the power that prayer can have on our life. By expanding the dimension of prayer and making it into a true meditation, one can truly embrace this ancient practice for what it was initially created (much earlier than Christ): to really understand what goes on inside oneself, to better understand the relationship between ourselves and the world, and through that better clarity, to be closer to God.
Ancient technology is still the BEST when it comes to managing our lives.
Yungblut explores several types of prayer in the various chapters. The main ones are:
1) lectio divina - praying with the Scripture
2) celebratory prayer
3) thanksgiving prayer
4) intercession
5) confession to God
6) contemplative prayer / adoration (this is the most similar to eastern types of meditation)
My favorite quote (it's not in this book) is "Two thirds of what you see is behind your eyes" (Chinese proverb). In fact, almost everything that matters in our life happens "behind" our eyes: basically, in our brain, within our body. Biologically, physically and spiritually. I wonder why so many Churches focus so much on external actions, like giving to the poor, being generous with your neighbors, behaving in a certain way, and not on prayer and meditation.
They are all great missions, but they risk missing out on the fact that all these external behaviors are not the beginning, but only the end result of a long and patient process that should take place within yourself, between God and yourself. This way, the risk is that a christian behavior will be acted out as a mindless chore, an obligation, instead of the spontaneous act that it should be, a consequence of a certain state of mind that you have reached through prayer.
Aren't you more open, more generous and more peaceful when you feel strong inside, when you feel "inside clarity" and you feel in touch with your inner longings and feelings? I certainly am.
Someone did say "So many people want to change the world, but how many people actually want to change themselves?"
Yungblut tries to reconcile the theories of evolution and psychological theories with the wider Christian framework. He sources a lot of his material from "The Phenomenon of Man" of Teilhard de Chardin and from Jung's "The undiscovered self". However interesting they may be though, these reflections get very vague and speculative very quickly. I found the greater value of this book in the analysis of the various types of prayer, and approaches to prayer that we have available.
Sometimes Yungblut sounds a bit like C.S. Lewis, especially in some unorganized ramblings and the unconventional open-minded approach to Christianity, but I welcome that.
I would recommend this book to anyone, religious or not.
About the author - he died in 1995. While a student at Harvard, John Yungblut asked his favorite preacher what was universal in religion? Where would he find it? Rufus Jones answered, “For that, my son, you must study the mystics.” From that, he was a lifelong student of the mystical approach to religious experience and of the ideas of C. G. Jung and Teilhard de Chardin. He aspired to be an advocate for the mystical heritage in Christianity, up-dated by Jung’s myth of the psyche and Teilhard’s myth of cosmogenesis, a universe still being born.
I found this 180 pages book to be very useful, practical and infused with wisdom. This is the thing about prayer: they just don't teach you how to do it (or has that changed in today's schools?). In my elementary school, praying was a boring, mechanical thing. Later on, when in high school I would have been more receptive to a more mature religious education, that just did not happen.
So - if that's what happens in other schools or families too - the result is that most people who pray end up using only the basic "petitionary" prayer, which is: "God help me with my exam tomorrow", "Please cure my illnes", "Please get me that promotion", etc etc. As a kid, as soon as you realize that it's not leading to the results you are hoping for, you often throw away the whole "religion" thing. But petitionary prayer does not even scratch the surface of the power that prayer can have on our life. By expanding the dimension of prayer and making it into a true meditation, one can truly embrace this ancient practice for what it was initially created (much earlier than Christ): to really understand what goes on inside oneself, to better understand the relationship between ourselves and the world, and through that better clarity, to be closer to God.
Ancient technology is still the BEST when it comes to managing our lives.
Yungblut explores several types of prayer in the various chapters. The main ones are:
1) lectio divina - praying with the Scripture
2) celebratory prayer
3) thanksgiving prayer
4) intercession
5) confession to God
6) contemplative prayer / adoration (this is the most similar to eastern types of meditation)
My favorite quote (it's not in this book) is "Two thirds of what you see is behind your eyes" (Chinese proverb). In fact, almost everything that matters in our life happens "behind" our eyes: basically, in our brain, within our body. Biologically, physically and spiritually. I wonder why so many Churches focus so much on external actions, like giving to the poor, being generous with your neighbors, behaving in a certain way, and not on prayer and meditation.
They are all great missions, but they risk missing out on the fact that all these external behaviors are not the beginning, but only the end result of a long and patient process that should take place within yourself, between God and yourself. This way, the risk is that a christian behavior will be acted out as a mindless chore, an obligation, instead of the spontaneous act that it should be, a consequence of a certain state of mind that you have reached through prayer.
Aren't you more open, more generous and more peaceful when you feel strong inside, when you feel "inside clarity" and you feel in touch with your inner longings and feelings? I certainly am.
Someone did say "So many people want to change the world, but how many people actually want to change themselves?"
Yungblut tries to reconcile the theories of evolution and psychological theories with the wider Christian framework. He sources a lot of his material from "The Phenomenon of Man" of Teilhard de Chardin and from Jung's "The undiscovered self". However interesting they may be though, these reflections get very vague and speculative very quickly. I found the greater value of this book in the analysis of the various types of prayer, and approaches to prayer that we have available.
Sometimes Yungblut sounds a bit like C.S. Lewis, especially in some unorganized ramblings and the unconventional open-minded approach to Christianity, but I welcome that.
I would recommend this book to anyone, religious or not.
April 26, 2012
This book gives a very unique and open-minded view on prayer. I gained a lot from reading this book and found a new way to incorporate prayer into my life that makes more sense to me that any of the other interpretations I've heard in my lifetime. It also fit with a lot of my other understandings about people's role in the world and our relationships to one another. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and recommend it to anyone looking to explore their own beliefs about religion and prayer.
November 2, 2015
Will write a comment soon.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews