Paul Johnson: The Prayer Life of a Great Intellectual

Paul Johnson: The prayer life of a great intellectual

I recently posted a video on Paul Johnson’s reasons for believing in God. Today I want to give one more reason that Johnson gives. Johnson is one of the greatest intellectuals who has ever lived and preeminent over the past 50 years. He says the strongest assurance he gets for God’s existence is through prayer. In this video I want to talk about the remarkable prayer life of this great thinker.

In an essay a few years ago Johnson detailed his prayer life. He says he prays every day. According to Johnson, “Prayer is the most remarkable — I am tempted to say sensational and spectacular — activity in which a human being can engage.”

He is even trying to develop the discipline to do what the Apostle Paul describes in 1 Thessalonians 5:17—to pray without ceasing. In addition to his daily practice of prayer before bedtime he also tries to pray when nothing else was occupying his mind. To basically be praying all the time.

He says, “We address privately but directly and intimately the most powerful creature in existence, the architect of the entire universe….[prayer] is a direct contact with God, which makes all the spine-tingling immensities of space completely irrelevant.”

According to Johnson, when we pray it defines us as human beings. “This ability to communicate with God is a reflection of the fact, and to me it is a fact, that in some indefinable but definite way we are created in his image, and thus can share our concerns with him.”

And do not be deceived. Johnson insists that prayer matters. “We know that he hears, registers and records, and that what we say in prayer has consequences.”

Johnson then describes some of the specific things he does in his prayer life.

“At night, when I kneel by my bed, I pray for between 40 and 60 individuals,

This is a nightly ritual which I find satisfying, a relief and, in a curious way, enjoyable.”

He also expands his prayers from beyond just this life or this moment in history.

“Since I wrote a book on Socrates and came to admire him, he is a recipient of my prayers, and so are certain authors whom I have learned to love as my friends, especially Jane Austen.”

So Johnson prays for people like Socrates and Jane Austen. I do not know what to make of that, but is it possible that our prayer list is too limited?

Johnson says prayer is something beyond ordinary communication. It is “more powerful and versatile than speech. It is a form of contact more ubiquitous and subtle than anything imaginable on the internet or any conceivable miracle of electronics….It is unlimited by space or time or mood, disability or illness. One may be totally paralyzed, with only the mind and its animating spirit still working, however feebly, but prayer is still possible, radiating to infinity.”

What a wonderful insight. Prayer gives hope and purpose to people in the worst possible physical condition.

Finally, Johnson concludes that for him, prayer is powerful evidence for the existence of God. In my last video I gave two of Johnson’s reasons for believing in God—the sense of community Christians have drawing strength from each other, and the powerful impulse to do good in the midst of life’s many evils. But then he says, “even stronger is the assurance I get from prayer.”

In prayer God assures Johnson of His love, His power, and His presence. Don’t let anyone tell you that prayer is only for the weak and mentally bereft. Here is one of the greatest intellectuals of all time talking about his robust prayer life. We would do well to imitate him.

Thanks for listening. May the God of Paul Johnson bless you this day in a mighty way.

More: Johnson’s original essay: https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/reason-to-believe/

Johnson wrote more than 50 books. If I had to choose one as the best it would be “Modern Times.” https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Times-Revised-Twenties-Nineties-ebook/dp/B003JBI3AG/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1675526854&sr=8-1

My previous video on Johnson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XG0Tbo_B34I&t=151s