Apparently I can't stop talking about Marcus Aurelius. The old emperor once again brought me inspiration for a blogpost. This time from Meditations 5.7:
"A prayer of the Athenians: Rain, rain, O dear Zeus, down on the ploughed fields of the Athenians and on the plains.—In truth we ought not to pray at all, or we ought to pray in this simple and noble fashion".
The quote got me thinking about the stoic approach to religion, or theism as a whole. Marcus' prayer is simple. There is no flourish or grand gesture, there are no lines upon lines of poetic hymn. And although the passage lacks the eloquence of "The lord's prayer", it struck me as incredibly dignified. We "ought not to pray at all, or we ought to pray in this simple and noble fashion"? It is powerful observation and it got me thinking about the ethics of praying.
Well, perhaps ethics might not be the appropriate word. The reasoning behind praying is what I am interested in exploring (undeniably, ethics will be intertwined somewhere). Marcus makes a striking statement, but he does not explain his premise. However, the quote makes sense if we take into account the context of his book. This means that we should be able to extrapolate his reasoning in passage 5.7 by studying the stoic mindset, and the rest of the Meditations.
Let's examine praying. In most religions (that I am aware of) praying can have two purposes. First, to pay our respects and reverence to a deity. The second reason, and the one that concerns The Meditations 5.7, is the type of prayer that requests a favor. One can examine 5.7 and realize that beyond the polite, but appropriate request, there is no flattering of the deity. No "glory to the father" or "father almighty" or any of that jazz. It is merely a respectful exchange, with the person requesting the favor acknowledging the other party's status. Nothing more, nothing less.
It is not arrogant, yet, it provides a sense of dignity for the supplicant. A sense of dignity, that, I think, was lost with the rise of Christianity. The Christian philosophy is one that venerates traits of humility, faith, piety and reverence. These are noble qualities. However, they can border with submission. This kind hyper-worship made Christianity uncomfortable for me. Call me ungrateful, but I reasoned that a father that truly loved his children would not demand elaborate prayer and "thank you" hymns every Sunday.
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