Homo orans. Antropologia della preghiera

What is the relevance of prayer today? The man and the woman of the second millenium are masters of their own time; moreover they are able to control nature through engineering and to dominate history thanks to political planning, so do they ever need to pray? What is the sense of their prayer? Perhaps is it only the expression of a desire destined to frustation or of an alienating request of need which is close to de-responsabilization? These questions can be synthetized in an ultimate, radical issue: he who prays adds or removes essential elements to the definition of the notion of person? Starting from an anthropological and a philosophical perspective, this essay answers this question and it argues that people are praying beings by their own nature and not by choice. Their prayer is not the outcome of a subjective desire, but it is inscribed in their ontological imbalance; an imbalance that makes them aware of their finitude and of their limits, but which, at the same time, acquaints them with their aspirations. This thesis is supported by an analysis of the prayer of request and of thanksgiving, which are two of the most common and meaningful forms of prayer. The attention given to prayer considered as the object of the praying act taken in its dynamism, offers the opportunity to underline the relationship with other human dimensions, i.e. freedom, time, knowledge and relationship. Therefore it is possible to tackle some of the most relevant questions asked by modern philosophy: does the freedom of he who prays diminish or increase? Does devoting himself to prayer mean sacrificing time or extending it at an existential level? Is prayer a refuge in ignorance or is it able to improve the comprehension of reality?