Praying for Paisley – Fr Gerry Reynolds and the role of prayer in faith-based peacebuilding: a preliminary theoretical framework

Abstract

This article proposes a preliminary theoretical framework for understanding the role of prayer in faith-based peacebuilding. The framework draws on research on the life of a Redemptorist priest, Fr Gerry Reynolds , who was based in Belfast's Clonard Monastery (1983 during the Troubles; and recent interdisciplinary scholarship on prayer, utilising Woodhead's [(2015). Conclusion: Prayer as changing the subject. In G. Giordan, & L. Woodhead (Eds.), A sociology of prayer (pp. 213-230). Farnham: Ashgate] re-definition of prayer as 'changing the subject'. The framework encompasses two individual effects of prayer: (1) prompting religious identity change, and (2) sustaining hope and activism during adversity; with one additional socio-political effect:(3) creating and sustaining real-world initiatives. It argues that scholars have not yet grasped how prayer functions as a resource for faith-based peacebuilders. It advocates including prayer as a variable in future research on faith-based peacebuilding, which may confirm, challenge or alter the preliminary framework.

Scripture in Stormont: Incidental reference to the Bible in Northern Irish politics

“…10.Cf. also Ganiel 2021, who examines the use of prayer in both hate-mongering and peace-making in Northern Ireland.…”

“…Paisley is also said to have prayed: “We hand this woman, Margaret Thatcher, to the Devil, that she might learn not to blaspheme. We pray that thouds’t make her a monument of Thy divine vengeance [...] O God, in wrath take vengeance upon this wicked, treacherous, lying woman” (Cooke 1996, 1; Smyth 1987, 192; Ganiel 2021, 79).…”