Is prayer a conversation?

Astra Dodge

I would not call myself religious, in fact I am probably classed as an atheist. However, I find myself intrigued in the comfort and hope that praying has given to people. My dad is an avid church goer and sometimes, I get roped into joining him to various Church sermons where Christians rejoice in song and share personal prayers with each other. On these outings, I noticed that prayer has the discourse structure of a conversation between two people (and a very one-sided conversation of that).

Many people who pray tend to use deictic pronouns and use god as an addressee, although he is not physically there. Daniel Weiss suggests that a person using a deictic pronoun ("you") in prayer is different to using a proper noun ("God") as the relationship is different between the speaker and their take on religion. For us non-Cambridge graduates, this is easier to understand in an example; if Sally were to approach John (I would just like to point out that as far as I am aware, Sally and John are fictional characters I made up in order for the example to make sense) and say to John "you are dressed nicely" the statement would be equally true if she said to him "John is dressed nicely". However, it would be more confusing to John (or any other person) as they have not been addressed as present when the statement was made. I agree with Weiss' views on this theory as 1. his work has been published and 2. if Christian's and other people of religion claim that God is real and around at all times, surely he must be able to listen and understand the same ways in which we do otherwise, why would prayers have the same discourse structure as daily conversations?

64.3% of prayer used in 'The Canterbury Tales' was  spoken in first person and in the present tense. This shows that a lot of prayer is used to have talks with. As people do see God as someone/thing to talk to, this may suggest why there is comfort in praying. From what I have researched, they must think that God is around to listen whenever needed and, as he does not seem to answer back verbally, there is no judgement passed on what their prayers may contain or who they may be. This may also give them a sense that something is being done to help their situations and, it is made known that the believers are never alone as long as God is real to them.