Partnership with God: a partial solution to the problem of petitionary prayer

Why would God make us ask for some good He might supply, and why would it be right for God to withhold that good unless and until we asked for it? We explain why present defences of petitionary prayer are insufficient, but argue that a world in which God makes us ask for some goods and then supplies...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inReligious studies Vol. 46; no. 3; pp. 395 - 410
Main Authors SMITH, NICHOLAS D., YIP, ANDREW C.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.09.2010
Subjects
Christianity
Collaboration
Divinity
Friendship
God
History and sciences of religions
Humans
Moral agency
Petitioners
Philosophy
Philosophy of religion
Prayer
Religious studies
Studies in religion
Teachers
Theology
Thomas Aquinas
Christian theology
God
Petition
Philosophy of Religion
Prayer
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Why would God make us ask for some good He might supply, and why would it be right for God to withhold that good unless and until we asked for it? We explain why present defences of petitionary prayer are insufficient, but argue that a world in which God makes us ask for some goods and then supplies them in response to our petitions adds value to the world that would not be available in worlds in which God simply supplied such goods without our asking for them. This added value, we argue, is what we call ‘partnership with God’.
Bibliography:ArticleID:99041
PII:S0034412509990412
ark:/67375/6GQ-JJBDH638-Q
istex:41D5A04AACFAC0913C8F2C10A0809D5728268BED
ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-1
content type line 23
ISSN:0034-4125
1469-901X
DOI:10.1017/S0034412509990412