Prayer, Meditation, and Retreat
Mette Birkedal Bruun
The Oxford Handbook of the Baroque July 18, 2019 DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190678449.013.2 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Historical analysis Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key points | Argues that Baroque devotion centered on retreat as a condition for sincere prayer, with mental prayer valued above verbal prayer for its demand on full attention. Describes the spatial, material, and instructional supports—chapels, gardens, prayer books, rosaries, images, and manuals—that sustained this inward devotional practice. |
Abstract
A penchant for retreat permeates baroque devotion. Prayer is key, and withdrawal from the world corroborates sincere prayer. Some believers retreat to the cloister for an existence of permanent absorption, but believers are generally enjoined to retreat for a few days annually to follow a devotional program, or for moments of prayer across the day. While verbal prayer is seen as a basic expression of devotion, mental prayer is generally deemed more efficacious, demanding as it does the believer’s full attention. Chapels, chambers, and gardens are privileged sites of devout absorption; prayer books, rosaries, and devotional images sustain the inward turn; manuals teach the practice; and written and drawn portraits show those who master it. This chapter presents the ideal of devotional retreat in prayer as well as some of its spatial, spiritual, corporeal, and material corollaries.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mindfulness: A proposed operational definition. | 2004 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mechanisms of mindfulness | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| How Does Mindfulness Meditation Work? Proposing Mechanisms of Action From a Conceptual and Neural Perspective | 2011 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART): a framework for understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of mindfulness | 2012 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |