This volume, one in the series ‘Perspectives in Continental Philosophy’ collates several previously worked papers; some published, others unpublished, some conference papers and selected guest lectures. Pattison has given his reader a demanding if rewarding read. Characteristic of Pattison’s erudite scholarship, displayed throughout this book, is engagement with a range of writers from which he populates, philosophically and theologically, territory beyond what many would regard as ‘prayer’. His dialogue partners include: Augustine, The Cloud of Unknowing, Thomas Aquinas, Thomas à Kempis, Kant, Schleiermacher, Simone Weil, Berdyaev, Marcel and Tillich. Prominent, and occasioning no surprise, are Kierkegaard, Heidegger and Levinas. There are many others, not least Dostoevsky. We also find Dionysius, Aristotle, and Plato along with less well-known post-Enlightenment figures both from Britain and continental Europe. Russian theology makes its appearance as do non-Christian perspectives. In dialogue with this richness, Pattison progressively weaves an intricate and interrelated tapestry, alongside Biblical perspectives, that brings into view multiple themes including, apophaticism (crucial for his overall thesis), covenant, homecoming, time, intentionality and in a fine, final chapter, humility. There are more.
The inter-relationship of annihilation, negation and passivity arises. So too does his stress on ‘nothingness’. This could occasion scepticism in some Christian readers. However, if these tropes are understood within the context of the kenotic Christology as found in Philippians 2, and then viewed within the wider orbit of apophatic theology, one has informed insight into Pattison’s direction of travel. Indeed, it could be considered that that is Pattison’s guiding text. So, drawing upon Philippians, Pattison confronts us with ‘virtuous humility’ which, though much debased through the last two to three centuries, ‘long had a leading role in Christian ideas of the virtuous or holy life.’ (124) Time and again Pattison urges commitment to the other (both God and the other person) as fundamental in Christian life. Following Dostoevsky, Pattison emphasises, “The best response to horrors is not intellectual argument but humble service … grounded on a constant and unrelenting consciousness of obligation to the other and the impossibility of achieving my own happiness unless or until the other is delivered from their suffering.” (138) Within his overall theme, Pattison continues, “Self-emptying, the spiritual stance correlative to the act of prostration, is becoming open to this presence; it is radical prayer, making space for God in relation to the other and in relation to self.”
Any practitioner not wishing to become involved with the reaches, both broad and deep, of what Pattison presents would derive much benefit in one section of Chapter Four and the whole of his Chapter Five, ‘Preaching’ with its first subsection, ‘The Sacrament of Preaching.’ Here we read, “the word of preaching is a call to prayer … [prayer] is only made possible through the word of preaching.” This chapter is very profound and, perhaps more than others in this book, can be read from start to finish as a stand-alone item. The section from Chapter Four, ‘Basic Words’ (59 – 67) is an intriguing piece likewise accessible to the knowledgeable reader with first level academic credentials. In it, Pattison identifies three “basic words” which establish “the first steps toward a vocabulary of spiritual life.” These words “bring out the character of the relation that is lived in a life of prayer.” (59, 60) The first word, ‘Help’ is referenced to The Cloud of Unknowing. Citing Kierkegaard, with whom he dialogues, is the second word, ‘Amen.’ Third is ‘Alleluia.’ For this, Pattison references scripture, hymnody, Dostoevsky, Buber, Heidegger and, let it not go unsaid, significant personal originality. This section comprises perhaps the most alluring part of Pattison’s A Philosophy of Prayer.
Overall though, what are we to make of this fine book? Here I declare personal interest. Pattison and I were exact contemporaries at the Episcopal Theological College in Edinburgh in the mid-1970’s. Alongside highly gifted seminarians, we sat before and shared with the saintly and a socially committed (and, yes, socialist) college chaplain. He, Fr Strachan, expounded some of the ‘spiritual heroes’ with whom Pattison now dialogues. He related this to the preaching, pastoral and prayerful ministry of that priesthood for which we were being prepared. One sentence of Fr Strachan’s, among many others that I have retained in memory from those heady days was, “let your concern for others feed, and be fed by, your prayers and your preaching.” I now read something very similar in Pattison. Fr Strachan’s wisdom from those early years of our formation has embedded itself well.
If I have a reserve about A Philosophy of Prayer, it arises from a passing remark in the opening lines of Pattison’s ‘Preface.’ He writes that though the essays were originally planned as “parts of a work on the philosophy of prayer … the original plan was overtaken by what became A Phenomenology of the Devout Life.” (xi) Pattison writes at a high level of philosophical and theological sophistication. He surveys vast landscapes around his subject and his journeying alongside numerous interlocutors is as impressive as it is informative. But the question remains, ‘what is his subject?’ In answer I suggest it is not so much prayer-in-itself, but prayer as it arises from what is classically called ‘the spiritual life’. This, I suggest, is the actual subject of Pattison’s book.
An alternative title to this book such as, ‘A Philosophy of the Holy Life’ might sit somewhat awkwardly alongside its 2018 predecessor, A Phenomenology of the Devout Life. However, I consider that what Pattison has now put before his readers is a philosophy of the holy life. This occasions no fault. In this first quarter of the twenty-first century there is an urgent need to rediscover the precepts and re-enter the practice of the holy life. I now deliberately avoid the descriptor ‘the spiritual life’. This has entered vox populi in the UK adopting generalised and vague currency as it has done so. Pattison, moreover and by contrast, has positioned and tracked a trajectory for the holy life valuably contesting managerialism in much contemporary British and, conceivably, western church thinking. Having read this review George Pattison comments:
“I’d still like to stick withy my title. Clearly, it’s not a manual of prayer but prayer is, I think, the organising centre and, as a philosophical enquiry, it then asks, ‘What must we say about human beings if we allow it to be possible that they might call upon God in the way that (at least some) classic texts do’ and asking that very specifically within the assumptions of post-Kantian philosophy. I suppose that by the same token my A Phenomenology of the Devout Life and the other two parts of that trilogy constantly touch on prayer but are looking more towards the shape of a ‘devout life’ as a whole. And maybe ultimately these are just two sides of the same coin.”
