Chapter 18 - Prayer and The Kingdom of Heaven

Summary

This chapter highlights what cultural-genetic psychology considers to be two pillars of orientation of human species: orientation to objects and orientation to social others, described by Wallon and Vygotsky in their respective socio-genetic approaches. It discusses the role of voice and speech in religious directivity and their essential implication in prayer. The analysis of spoken and written protocols emerges as a strategic method, for the study of both directivity in general and that of religious activity in particular. The consideration of external representational phenomena as linked to the processing of internal mental representations opens a door to the external analysis of mental processes from the cognitive perspective. A psychotechnical resource can provide us with extremely rich information on the external and internal mechanisms of mediation. From a mediational perspective, considering humankind as a family indeed appears to be a good psychotecnics of thinking and of feeling.