The Where-Being of God as Transcendent, Immanent, or Indwelling and Associations with Contemplative Prayer - Ela Łazarewicz-Wyrzykowska

Summary:

In the Roman Catholic tradition, contemplation is often considered the highest expression of prayer (CCC, 2711). In contemplative prayer, the praying individual is said to encounter God in the silence of her heart. Those who practice this prayer form assume union with God (CCC, 2713) and are thought to gain access to a wealth of spiritual and emotional resources (CCC, 2715). 

Traditionally, contemplative prayer has been thought to be available only to monastics after years of training. However, adherents within the Catholic Charismatic Renewal (a Pentecostal-like movement) who receive the “baptism of the Holy Spirit” often report a more immediate “filling” of the Holy Spirit and a remarkable experience of the presence of God. Moreover, there is often a distinct emphasis on emotional or personal prayer versus ritualized, formulaic prayers. 

The purpose of the proposed interdisciplinary project is to address the question: To what extent are perceptions of God as transcendent, immanent, or indwelling associated with contemplative versus ritualized (or other types of) prayer? 

To this end, I will develop, in collaboration with my colleague, a new scale measuring Catholic participants’ understanding of God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit (i.e., each member of the Trinity) in terms of their location — henceforth, referred to as “where-being” — as transcendent (being above and outside the material world), immanent (permeating the material world), or indwelling (being inside people’s hearts/souls).

The novel scale will then be administered in a sample of 300 Catholics in Poland. The survey will include hypothesized correlates: types of prayer, absorption, religiousness, God representations, and demographics, including group affiliations within Polish Catholicism.

I expect to find that the representation of the Holy Spirit and Jesus as indwelling will be more prevalent among members of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in comparison to the non-Charismatic Catholics (H1). Conversely, I anticipate the conceptualisation of God the Father and Jesus as transcendent to be more frequent among non-Charismatics (H2). I also expect members of the Charismatic Renewal to report experiences of contemplative prayer more frequently in comparison to the non-Charismatic Catholics (H3). I expect that the representation of God (particularly, the Holy Spirit) as immanent will be distributed evenly across both groups (H4).

The results of the study will be disseminated in academic and popular venues, via one journal article presenting the novel Divine Where-being measure, submitted to a top-tier journal; an academic conference paper; and a popular article in the Polish language submitted to a Catholic magazine dedicated to Christian spirituality.