Cataphatic Prayer, Part II

As mentioned a few posts back, the idea of cataphatic prayer, or imaginative prayer, is nothing new. Popularized by St. Ignatius of Loyola, some time back, Dr. Greg Boyd revisited this with his book "Seeing is Believing".

Part of the idea behind cataphatic prayer is to visualize in one's mind biblical events from a different point of view, or a richer perspective than what is presented by the Bible itself. Taking this idea, I've read a 600+ page 1930s copy of a childrens' Bible story book. From what I can discern, the stories presented are accurate retellings of Bible events (albeit sometimes glossed over for young ears, i.e. David's sin with Bathsheba isn't mentioned, just that David had done something rather bad...)

Taking these easier to follow accounts, one might further grasp what is going on in the story. By understanding these stories better one might place themself there and gain greater meaning from it. Sometimes this book helps clarify to the reader what is going on. For example, the people of Ephesus turned to Christ and burned their books of magic (this is where we get the idea of a Christian book-burning). The author side notes that this is profound because in the day books were expensive luxuries, not something impoverished people had. Think of it as smashing 50" 1080p plasma TVs on the sidewalk. This was really making a statement about how they were changing their lives.

Some commentary may affirm or upset theologians reading, as in Peter's vision of the blanket full of unclean animals, for which he is instructed to kill and eat.

I paricularly found interesting the commentary on Acts 5, where Annanias and his wife Sapphira sell land and give the profits to the church. However, they keep some money to themselves, but indicate the gift is the entire sum. In lying to the church, God smotes them, that is they die at once. Edgermeier's commentary expands on the Bible where it says "The whole church and all the others who heard of this were terrified" (Acts 5:11 Good News Translation). Edgermeier says that they were terrified and were afraid to claim to be Christians unless they were sure their sins were forgiven. This is poignant in terms of many who claim to be Christians who make appearances of the religiosity of the Church just as Annanias and Sapphira, but who are actually leading sinful, displeasing lives. It is one thing to "do church" and quite another to act as Jesus.

Cataphatic Prayer

Seeing Is Believing: Experience Jesus through Imaginative Prayer by Dr. Greg Boyd takes a look at Cataphatic, or imaginative prayer as advocated by many in Church Tradition, such as St. Ignatius, the founder of the Jesuit Order.

Boyd's argument is that many Christians struggle with faith because if they are joyless or unsucessful in not sinning in particular ways, the clergy often responds with a 'try harder' response. Since a Christian ought to be joyful, if you are not joyful then you're just not exerting enough effort.

What this results in is Christians hiding struggles from one another and putting on a guise of holiness while often feeling empty inside.

Rather, we ought to seek Jesus and just be honest with Him in our struggles. The process of "Resting in Christ," as defined by Boyd is that we use our imaginations to vividly conceptualize Christ and just exist with Him, that a common understanding of how much He cares for us and wants us to be aware of that becomes evident. Only then might our Christian walk be advanced to its biblical prescriptions.

Obviously, there are objections to this process. One must not give up on 'trying' altogether, but rather an understanding that trying alone will not accomplish much of lasting value. The idea of envisioning Jesus may seem like make-believe, but Boyd argues that this has more to do with our Western science-based culture defining anything non-physical as not real.

Other issues are addressed in the book, along with several stories of people who have undergone dramatic benefits from the process.

So read it with an open mind. As CS Lewis noted in one of his books - if it's useful to you, use it, if not, don't give it a second thought.

Matt