Back to top: Chapter 14
Individual prayer
1 Ritual prayer is the (perhaps implied) presence of a technician who serves as an intermediary and facilitator. Spontaneous prayer can make use of fixed formulas but does not presuppose a pattern suggested by a technician.
2 Evidence for spontaneous prayer in Mesopotamia includes personal names (often phrases expressing personal piety), proverbs, benedictions and curses, dedicatory inscriptions, greeting formulas, and oaths.
3 We find many examples of spontaneous prayer in the Biblical context: the Psalms are a good example.
Back to top: Chapter 14
Intercession
4 Intercession describes the attitude wherein the individual believes that he could make a change that would benefit himself or those for whom he prayed or celebrated a ritual.
5 In Mesopotamia, gods are asked to determine, but not to change, fate. The nature of intercession, in Mesopotamia, is resolved in the request to the gods to implement an event that is already in the nature of things, according to patterns known to the gods better than to anyone else.
6 In Biblical terms, a call for help is already included in the general scheme of things, and therefore the change is only apparent: it resides in human perception which is buried in time and space, not in the reality of the divine way of seeing. Moreover, humans were created to take part in the divine will and imitate God’s creative process.
7 Contemplation aims at the intuitive and full fruition of the presence felt as touching at the personal and emotional level. Accounts of mystical experiences are found in the Bible but not in Mesopotamia.