Davison Scott A. - Petitionary Prayer: A Philosophical Investigation

I would like to thank the following persons for reading or commenting on material that later became parts of this book (in no particular order): Eleonore Stump, Timothy OConnor, Randolph Clarke, Daniel and Frances Howard-Snyder, Kevin Timpe, Ronald L. Hall, Michael Rea, Michael Bergmann, Joshua Smith, George Pappas, Thomas P. Flint, David Basinger, Nicholas Smith, Alexander Pruss, William Rowe, Jeff Jordan, Michael Murray, Ronald L. Hall, Paul Draper, William Hasker, Kate Rogers, the Rev. Donald Klop, Winifred Klop, Teena Blackburn, and George Mavrodes.

I would also like to thank participants in the 2006 Meeting of the Society for Philosophy of Religion (Charleston, South Carolina), participants in the 2009 University of Texas at San Antonio Workshop for Metaphysics and Philosophy of Religion (San Antonio, Texas), participants in the 2012 Society for Philosophy of Religion meeting (Savannah, Georgia), and participants in the 201516 weekly seminar series in the Analytic Theology for Theological Formation program at Fuller Seminary (Pasadena, California). At these venues, versions of some of the arguments that appear here were presented and discussed, much to my benefit.

Special thanks are due to William Hasker, J. Caleb Clanton, and two anonymous referees for Oxford University Press, who read early drafts of the entire manuscript and provided very helpful comments and challenges that resulted in significant changes in the main conclusions of the book. I would also like to thank students in my spring 2012 Philosophy 399 class at Morehead State University, which was devoted to the subject of petitionary prayer. I have almost certainly forgotten others who helped me along the way, but I am grateful for all of the support I have received.

Thanks to all of this help from other people, I was able to remove many errors from earlier versions of the manuscript, but Im sure that many others remain, for which I alone bear responsibility. For a variety of reasons, I was not able to address, to my satisfaction, every critical comment I received during the writing of this book; I will indicate here and there my uncertainty about issues that seem to require further attention.

Release time from teaching to pursue the research and writing of this book was provided by a sabbatical leave semester from Morehead State University in the spring of 2013, during which I enjoyed a Research Fellowship in the Moore Institute at the National University of Ireland in Galway. I am grateful to both of these institutions for their support.

This book is dedicated to my wife Becky, who is a positive presence to everyone she meets, and who enables me to enjoy so many of the things that make our common life wonderful. During the past six months, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, underwent surgery, and completed chemotherapy treatments before starting hormone suppression drugs. We have three children between 10 and 15 years of age, and we are all deeply immersed in the life of a small town, playing various roles in a number of community organizations, including a Christian church. Throughout this time, we have been generously supported by our friends, family, students, colleagues, and even others whom we know only as acquaintances. In creative and helpful ways we could never anticipate, let alone request, these people have shared our burdens and helped us to arrive at the place where we are today, where Beckys prognosis for future health is very positive.

In recent months, our religious friends and family have told us many times over that they prayed to God for us in the petitionary way, and we are deeply grateful for these acts of love. Did they make a difference in the outcome of Beckys case? Would things have gone worse for us, had those prayers not been offered? We dont really know; maybe we will never know. Or maybe someday, we will discover that these prayers really did make a difference, and we will be even more grateful for them.

At the same time, our non-religious friends and family told us many times over that they were thinking about us, sending us positive energy, hoping for the best, and wishing us well. As before, we are deeply grateful for these acts of love. Did they make a difference in the outcome of Beckys case? Would things have gone worse for us, had people not had those thoughts? We dont really know; maybe we will never know. Or maybe someday, we will discover that they really did make a difference, and we will be even more grateful for them.