Editing Prayer (section)

===Experiential approach===
[[File:Theophile Lybaert - Old Flanders.jpeg|thumb|''Old woman praying'' by [[Théophile Lybaert]]]]
In this approach, the purpose of prayer is to enable the person praying to gain a direct experience of the recipient of the prayer (or as close to direct as a specific theology permits). This approach is very significant in Christianity and widespread in Judaism (although less popular theologically). In [[Eastern Orthodoxy]], this approach is known as [[hesychasm]]. It is also widespread in [[Sufi]] Islam, and in some forms of [[mysticism]]. It has some similarities with the rationalist approach, since it can also involve [[contemplation]], although the contemplation is not generally viewed as being as rational or intellectual.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dehlvi |first=Sadia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zw_Q2Rbh7yIC |title=Sufism: Heart Of Islam |date=2013-12-01 |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=978-93-5029-448-2 |language=en}}</ref>

Christian and Roman Catholic traditions also include an experiential approach to prayer within the practice of ''[[lectio divina]]''. Historically a [[Benedictine]] practice, ''lectio divina'' involves the following steps: a short scripture passage is read aloud; the passage is meditated upon using the mind to place the listener within a relationship or dialogue with the text; recitation of a prayer; and concludes with [[Lectio Divina#Contemplatio ("contemplation")|contemplation]]. The [[Catechism of the Catholic Church]] describes prayer and meditation as follows:<ref>{{cite book |title=The Catechism of the Catholic Church |publisher=Vatican |at=¶ 2708 |url=http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p4s1c3a1.htm |access-date=6 January 2021 |archive-date=1 August 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160801003944/http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p4s1c3a1.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> <blockquote>Meditation engages thought, imagination, emotion, and desire. This mobilization of faculties is necessary in order to deepen our convictions of faith, prompt the conversion of our heart, and strengthen our will to follow Christ. Christian prayer tries above all to meditate on the mysteries of Christ, as in [[lectio divina]] or the [[rosary]]. This form of prayerful reflection is of great value, but Christian prayer should go further: to the knowledge of the love of the Lord Jesus, to union with him.</blockquote>

The experience of God within [[Apophatic theology|Christian mysticism]] has been contrasted with the concept of experiential religion or [[Religious experience|mystical experience]] because of a long history or authors living and writing about experience with the divine in a manner that identifies God as unknowable and ineffable, the language of such ideas could be characterized paradoxically as "experiential", as well as without the phenomena of experience.<ref>''The Darkness of God: Negativity in Christian Mysticism'' by Denys Turner 1998 Cambridge University Press {{ISBN|0-521-64561-1}}</ref>

In the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, several historical figures put forth very influential views that religion and its beliefs can be grounded in experience itself. While [[Immanuel Kant|Kant]] held that [[Moral obligation|moral experience]] justified [[religious belief]]s, [[John Wesley]] in addition to stressing individual moral exertion thought that the religious experiences in the [[Methodist movement]] (paralleling the [[Romantic Movement]]) were foundational to religious commitment as a way of life.<ref>Issues in Science and Religion, [[Ian Barbour]], [[Prentice-Hall]], 1966, pp. 68, 79</ref> According to [[Catholic theology|catholic doctrine]], Methodists lack a ritualistic and rational approach to praying but rely on individualistic and moralistic forms of worship in direct conversation with God. This approach is rejected by most [[Orthodox religion]]s.<ref>[https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=9359 "Gestures of Worship: Relearning Our Ritual Language"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230410064950/https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=9359 |date=2023-04-10 }} ''catholicculture''. Accessed 9 April 2023.</ref>

[[Wayne Proudfoot]] traces the roots of the notion of "religious experience" to the German theologian [[Friedrich Schleiermacher]] (1768–1834), who argued that religion is based on a feeling of the infinite. The notion of "religious experience" was used by Schleiermacher and [[Albrecht Ritschl|Albert Ritschl]] to defend religion against the growing scientific and secular critique, and defend the view that human (moral and religious) experience justifies [[religious belief]]s.

Such religious empiricism would be later seen as highly problematic and was&nbsp;– during the period in-between world wars&nbsp;– famously rejected by [[Karl Barth]].<ref>[[Issues in Science and Religion]], [[Ian Barbour]], [[Prentice-Hall]], 1966, pp. 114, 116–19</ref> In the 20th century, religious as well as moral experience as justification for religious beliefs still holds sway. Some influential modern scholars holding this [[Liberal Christianity|liberal theological]] view are [[Charles E. Raven|Charles Raven]] and the Oxford physicist/theologian [[Charles Coulson]].<ref>[[Issues in Science and Religion]], [[Ian Barbour]], [[Prentice-Hall]], 1966, pp. 126–27</ref>

The notion of "religious experience" was adopted by many scholars of religion, of whom William James was the most influential.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sharf |first1=Robert H. |title=The rhetoric of experience and the study of religion |journal=Journal of Consciousness Studies |date=2000 |volume=7 |pages=267–287}}</ref>{{efn|James also gives descriptions of conversion experiences. The Christian model of dramatic conversions, based on the role-model of Paul's conversion, may also have served as a model for Western interpretations and expectations regarding "enlightenment", similar to Protestant influences on Theravada Buddhism, as described by Carrithers: "It rests upon the notion of the primacy of religious experiences, preferably spectacular ones, as the origin and legitimation of religious action. But this presupposition has a natural home, not in Buddhism, but in Christian and especially Protestant Christian movements which prescribe a radical conversion."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Carrithers |first=Michael |title=The Buddha (Past Masters) |date=1983 |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref>}} However, this notion of "experience" has been criticized.<ref name=":0">{{cite journal |last1=Sharf |first1=Robert |title=Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience |journal=Numen |date=1995 |volume=42 |issue=3 |pages=228–283 |doi=10.1163/1568527952598549 |hdl=2027.42/43810 |url=https://brill.com/view/journals/nu/42/3/article-p228_2.xml |access-date=28 March 2022 |hdl-access=free |archive-date=23 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200723174535/https://brill.com/view/journals/nu/42/3/article-p228_2.xml |url-status=live }}</ref> Robert Sharf points out that "experience" is a typical Western term, which has found its way into Asian religiosity via western influences.<ref name=":0" />{{efn|Robert Sharf: "[T]he role of experience in the history of Buddhism has been greatly exaggerated in contemporary scholarship. Both historical and ethnographic evidence suggests that the privileging of experience may well be traced to certain twentieth-century reform movements, notably those that urge a return to ''[[zazen]]'' or ''[[vipassana]]'' meditation, and these reforms were profoundly influenced by religious developments in the west [...] While some adepts may indeed experience "altered states" in the course of their training, critical analysis shows that such states do not constitute the reference point for the elaborate Buddhist discourse pertaining to the "path".}} The notion of "experience" introduces a false notion of duality between "experiencer" and "experienced", whereas the essence of kensho is the realisation of the "non-duality" of observer and observed. "Pure experience" does not exist; all experience is mediated by intellectual and cognitive activity. The specific teachings and practices of a specific tradition may even determine what "experience" someone has, which means that this "experience" is not the ''proof'' of the teaching, but a ''result'' of the teaching. A pure consciousness without concepts, reached by "cleaning the doors of perception",{{efn|[[William Blake]]: "If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thru' narrow chinks of his cavern."<ref>{{cite web |title=A Point Of View: The doors of perception |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-22648328#:~:text=William%20Blake%20wrote%20that%20%22if,Machen%20expressed%20the%20same%20thought. |website=BBC News |access-date=28 March 2022 |date=26 May 2013 |archive-date=28 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220328143756/https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-22648328#:~:text=William%20Blake%20wrote%20that%20%22if,Machen%20expressed%20the%20same%20thought. |url-status=live }}</ref>}} would be an overwhelming chaos of sensory input without coherence.<ref name=":0" />