How to Do Things with Prayer Utterances

Abstract

While the social scientific study of prayer is growing, little work has investigated prayer utterances—or statements where social actors say the term “prayer” or various cognates—in everyday talk. Drawing on insights from ordinary language philosophy, I argue that prayer utterances are performative utterances that help social actors accomplish a variety of actions in social interactions. To illustrate the performative nature of prayer utterances, I describe three types of actions that prayer utterances can accomplish: (1) aligning potentially problematic or questionable conduct with cultural expectations, (2) signaling to others an intense yearning for an object or occurrence on the behalf of oneself or others, and (3) signaling to others authentic feelings of care for another person or group of people. I conclude with a discussion of the implications of the analysis.

Prayer, Patronage, and Personal Agency in Nicaraguan Accounts of Receiving International Aid

“…Shared moments of prayer operated in multiple ways: as a ritual reinforcing a shared identity; as a reminder of Christians’ supposed equality before God; as a comforting assertion of authentic care from receiver to donor; and as a gift with potentially supernatural value. The perceived sincerity rather than the efficacy of a prayer was relevant to its effect on those being prayed for (Sharp ).…”

“…The two petitionary prayers just described highlight a particular limitation of prayers offered within aid interactions. Prayer utterances might be a way to take action toward a desired goal (Sharp ). However, for many people living in communities impacted by aid and development organizations, that goal was to find a sponsor.…”

An Interactionist Approach to the Social Construction of Deities

“…Such research has produced a wealth of knowledge concerning the ways people experience deities while engaging in forms of identity, emotion, body, and ideology work to create religious selves and groups, but it leaves unexplored the construction of the deities themselves despite implicit suggestions in the literature that this facet may be important and varied. While Sharp (2013b) and scholars focused on LGBT religious people (see, e.g., Barton 2012;McQueeney 2009;Wolkomir 2006) importantly reveal variation in conceptions of deities and some ways people manage confusion related to belief in specific deities, they reveal little about the processes whereby people construct these and other versions of deities.…”

“…Like Sharp's (2010) informants, our respondents talked a lot about prayer. In fact, very few met the first author more than once without offering to pray for zir, and prayers (individual and collective) were integrated into secular and religious activities.…”

“…We further see coding processes in the form of prayer. While prayer has received little attention in scholarly circles, recent analyses demonstrate some ways prayers may reinforce belief in deities for individuals and signify believer status or identity to others (Sharp 2010). Furthermore, casual uses of prayer (e.g., statements of intent to pray for another whether or not they are a believer or political leaders saying "our" prayers are with people despite the many nonbelievers in our nation) signify belief in deities in many circumstances.…”