Phenomenology of Prayer 1: Disinterested Delight

Phenomenology of Prayer 1: Disinterested Delight
December 10, 2017
A section of chapter 1 of this book impacted me very greatly this semester. Merold Westphal’s discussion of prayer posture has been influencing the way I pray in my personal life. On page 13 Westphal shares with readers the five elements of prayer. The five elements are as follows,
  1. Praise
  2. Thanksgiving
  3. Confession
  4. Petition (for self)
  5. Intercession (for others)
In this section an important distinction is made between praise and thanksgiving. When we are giving thanks, we are thanking God for something that he has done for us. When we are giving praise, we are recognizing and verbalizing goodness and beauty of the God.

Evelyn Underhill explains praise by calling it “disinterested delight.” Disinterested delight is purely praising and admiring another being (in this case God).

On page 14 Westphal describes how the other elements of prayer and how they are not characterised by disinterested delight.
“I petition God for the things I want or think I need, and I intercede for whom I care, I ask God to forgive my sins and to grant me the benefit of forgiveness; and I thank God for what God has given me” (14).
Disinterested delight, is when you are delighted in someone, but not because they can give you something in return (this would be interested delight).
I think it is very easy to have interested delight. How often do we it in the presence of God and actually meditate on his goodness and and just praise him? I don’t do this enough. When we do not pause to just be with God and praise him for who he is, we treat him as if he is a mean to our end (16). I think it can take discipline to pause all your requests, and thoughts, for the purpose of praising God. Since praise does not benefit you in any way, it could feel as if you are maybe wasting time.
As a believer though, I know it is not a waste of time to praise God. To me, it sounds like an honor to sit and praise the Lord. Personally, I just need to consciously decide I am going to do this more.  I am grateful that this book revealed this important distinction to me and that it is impacting prayer in my life.

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