On the Difference between Prayer and Magic

Abstract

What is the difference between prayer and magic? Prayer in the Christian tradition is an act of worship which originates in a divine ordinance. The Christian Cultus is said to be at once a sacrifice and a sacrament. In worship, says Gregory of Nysa, we follow Christ closely from behind and do not look at Him face to face —because a face-to-face implies that we are on opposite directions. The praying person is one who, with Catherine of Siena, acknowledges that “God is everything and she is nothing.” Magic on the other hand is about‘expediency,” it is about this world. Josef Pieper describes magic as prayer that does not transcend this world. He says “there exists aform of prayer in which ‘this’ world is not transcended, in which, rather, the attempt is made to incorporate the divine in the instrumental network of the workday as a functioning component.” The idea behind such prayer is to tame God. He decries this degeneration in prayer saying “there is the degeneration of religion into magic—not devotion to the divine, but rather the attempt to overpower the divine and to make it available. There is the degeneration of prayer into practice, precisely in order to continue making life under the dome bearable.” Chesterton makes a distinction between a praying Christian, a healthy heathen, and a spiritualist. Faith and worship in the Church in Africa seem to be grossly influenced by the need for bread. Because of the poverty of the mind, many Christians become gullible and fall into the hands of so-called ministers of God instead of leading them to authentic worship, trust and faith in God, but rather lure them into a magic. G.K. believes that magic is real because superstition recurs in all ages and superstition occurs in a rationalist age like ours because it rests on something which, if not identical with rationalism, is not unconnected with scepticism, is at least connected with agnosticism.”