ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book discusses the idea after consolidating some of the general insights and explains how they enlarge the understanding of prayer. It draws out the implications of the studies that have gathered for how one may define study and approach prayer in contemporary societies. The book discusses the main varieties of 'prayer' and the commonalities which also emerge. Variation is also the norm in relation to the emotional and embodied dimensions of prayer studied in the book. As traditional forms of religion lose their authority in many societies, and as new forms of religion, spirituality and 'non-religion' take their place, so prayer changes and diversifies accordingly. The book suggests the concerns, referents, forms and locations of prayer may now have shifted and changed so significantly that one need to reinterpret and renew the concepts, definitions and theories to sensitise what has happened.
