ABSTRACT
The Christian tradition holds that God hears and heeds the prayers of Her/His people. Yet contemporary scientific insights raise new questions about how God can be said to respond to prayer. How does scientific knowledge limit the language we use to describe God's action in the world? Where should theological reflection on prayer begin, and where should it end? Using Jesuit astronomer William Stoeger's retrieval of Aquinas's theology of divine action by primary-secondary causality, this chapter proposes a theology of prayer that flows from a conception of creation as the self-expression of God. God's radical transcendence of creation enables God's continuous self-presencing in creation, at the very heart of things. As such, God—acting through the processes and relationships that constitute reality—manifests Her/His will to life, flourishing, and communion in each moment of existence. This model of divine action provides the basis for a richly relational theology of prayer, wherein prayer provides a channel for the realization of God's will through creaturely discernment in the concrete circumstances of everyday life.
