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Abstract Traditional prayers can function to provide spiritual and social support for oneself and others. With social media, this support finds a new expression in digital prayers. We map the landscape of digital petitionary prayers for self and others across three different media. In survey one (n = 218), frequency of digital petitionary prayers, described by topic, relationship, place, and outcome, was highest for the mobile medium (phone and text messaging), midrange for Facebook (posting and e-mail), and lowest for traditional e-mail. A second survey (n = 116) revealed that different types and contexts for petitionary prayers are positively associated with love of self, others, and God. Suggestions for future research include investigating the quality and outcomes of petitionary prayers across private, face-to-face, and digital contexts. Notes 1Religion and spirituality, as academic terms, are derived in part from the beliefs, experiences, and behaviors of peoples from the world's religions (CitationBeversluis, 2000). Spirituality is often associated with personal/subjective values and practices that provide meaning and purpose to life whereas religion is often conceptualized as an organizational/institutionally validated set of values and rituals that provide meaning and purpose in the search for the sacred (CitationZinnbauer et al., 1997; CitationZinnbauer & Pargament, 2005). There are many other conceptualizations of religion/spirituality, depending on the academic lens. For example, CitationGreeley (1995) reviews a variety of religious/spiritual perspectives that are connected to prayer: Karl Marx's opiate of the people (prayer used to pacify the populous), Sigmund Freud's neurosis (prayer as an ego-defense mechanism), Talcott Parson's search for meaning (prayer as purposeful social action), Rudolf Otto's the Holy (prayer as an encounter with the numinous, that which is both fascinating and terrifying), and William James' mystical experience (prayer as a noetic, an experience of "knowing" beyond ordinary experience). These examples demonstrate that religious/spiritual perspectives serve as frames for understanding the beliefs, experiences, and behaviors of "prayer." 2Conceptualizing prayers of petition as ways to cope with everyday life is partly based on Pargament's psychological research on religious coping (CitationPargament, Koenig, & Perez, 2000). Several subcategories of religious coping are related to prayer across three studies of diverse samples of individuals coping with major life crises (CitationPargament, Smith, Koenig, & Perez, 1998): spiritual connection (e.g., looked for a stronger relationship with God), seeking spiritual support (e.g., sought God's love and care), religious forgiveness (e.g., sought help from God in letting go of my anger), and collaborative religious coping (e.g., tried to put my plans into action together with God). Each of these types of religious coping can be realized by prayer, especially prayers of petition. 3Prayers of petition are among the oldest recorded prayers. In ancient Sumerian civilization, evidence for prayers of petition to the family's personal god is recorded on cuneiform tablets (CitationKramer, 1959). Petitionary prayers are also known as intercessory or supplicatory prayers. Other less formal names for petitionary prayer include entreaty, invocation, asking, and so forth. To avoid confusion, and to maintain a sense of continuity, we will use the term "petitionary prayer" throughout the article. 4Other researchers have used the term "spiritual support" in a somewhat different sense in relation to religion/spirituality. For instance, spiritual support has been defined as "the tendency for coreligionists to help a person maintain and deepen his or her faith by encouraging the person to integrate religious beliefs and practices into daily life" (CitationKrause, Ellinson, Shaw, Marcum, & Boardman, 2001, p. 642). This definition does not specifically address prayer per se, nor does CitationHorosewski and Lee's (2008) idea of using religious/spiritual reading material, movies, pastoral visits, and the like as "religious/spiritual sources of social support."
Baesler et al. (Tue,) studied this question.