ABSTRACT
It cannot be denied that prayer does affect the person who prays. Some would not only consider this effect to be beneficial, but would also claim that the primary purpose of prayer is to bring it about. On this view prayer can be characterized as a form of therapeutic meditation which the person who prays conducts with him-or herself. In his Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone Kant distinguishes between two forms of religion: rational faith and revealed religion as practised in the Church. Like Kant, Miles distinguishes between prayer as a means of persuading God and prayer as a form of self-therapy. Although Kant and Miles do not deviate from the Christian tradition in maintaining that prayer has the function of therapeutic meditation, they do deviate by arguing that this sort of therapeutic meditation can be practised by persons who do not believe that God exists or is active in the world.
