Prayer is a research in the sociology of prayer

A book with great ambition, its author presented to himself to fill the void left by the descriptions of scholars, when it comes to linguists and historians of religions regarding the issue of prayer, breaking away from spiritual, personal, theological, and philosophical conceptions, with the aim of establishing an objective theory of prayer compatible with the human view in the French school of sociology. It is an ambition to discover an initial model without departing from the principle of respecting methodological rules. Therefore, Marcel Moussa analyzed the phenomenon of prayer by repositioning it within its ritual and practical context, with an attempt to categorize it based on precise models that combine generative models and developmental models. According to Moussa, prayer relies on four elements, as it is "primarily an act... always involving effort, and the expenditure of physical and mental energy to produce certain effects... Moreover, it is a traditional act as part of a ritual... and it also possesses latent effectiveness... because it is what prompts the divine to intervene in a specific direction... Finally, its effectiveness is the same as that of religious rituals, because it is directed toward divine powers." Thus, prayer at Moussa combines two fundamental dimensions: action and belief. For him, prayer is a verbal tool for action and a content for thought, and it is "full of meaning as a myth... and full of power and effectiveness as a ritual," or it is "the meeting point of myth and ritual together." Additionally, prayer at Moussa has a dual characteristic: on one hand, it is a consecration speech that expresses both social belonging and respect for traditions; on the other hand, it possesses a creative value. Prayer has a social content; indeed, it is a social act. No matter how important the individual dimension of prayer is, it remains, in reality, secondary compared to its social dimension. We are facing new and remarkable ideas and a "work, although fragmented, remains the most important work left to us by Marcel Moussa." And we hope, despite the few who know Moussa’s book on prayer and the rarity of references to it, that its importance is as great as the Arab reader hopes for in this remarkable translation.