True story. When I was a little kid, I apparently prayed often. I was brought up Roman Catholic. Anyway, sometimes I’d find myself on the toilet. And I would cease praying reasoning God didn’t want me to pray naked. I don’t know if I heard that some place. I did learn a lot of stuff in catechism that I have since forgot, or at least that is hazy now.
But can you pray to God in the buff? Feel free to interject your own opinions. But I am looking for a more theological answer.
And FWIW I presently believe in God, but not much else (I don’t believe in an afterlife, e.g.). But I do still consider myself a Catholic. So I do still pray. You know the R.C. church does have a lot of beautiful devotions.
Also, as long as I am talking about the Catholic church and nudity, I might as well ask. Why is Jesus never depicted on the crucifix nude? You know he was actually crucified nude. Maybe the R.C. church is prudish. But what about a Christian nudist for example. Now I have already seen Jesus depicted on the cross as a female. Surely being nude couldn’t be much worse, at least for the Catholic church. Really.
Any person/higher power/supreme being undoubtedly knows what you look like under your clothes or your secret evil thoughts.
This is what turned me off of Santa Claus about age 4. I didn’t like anyone claiming they knew everything I thought or did.
Realism or historical accuracy is not generally a priority in crucifixes, or indeed in much religious art. The depiction of the Christ-figure as naked, or nearly so, or clothed is intended to make a theological point, not to tell the viewer what a Roman crucifixion looked like. Jesus on the cross frequently doesn’t look like someone who has been tortured to death, and equipping him with a loincloth (or more) represents a decision not to depict the fullness of degradation and humiliation, in the same way as representing him not a victim of torture does.
Humans have invented so many deities, it’s hard to keep track to who or what to pray to, and why, and even how. Translators rendering biblical texts into a Mexican Indian language had trouble finding appropriate local words. The closest they had for “pray” was “to wag one’s tail before the lord”. (From Mario Pei’s The Story of Language, IIRC.) Thus I recommend the OP find a suitable translation, or convert to the Church of Naked Jesus.
There are in fact Christian congregations (or at least one anyway) that practice prayer in the nude, holding clothing-optional services where people can pray as God made them.
The toilet is for praying to the Porcelain God. You do not have to be naked, but I guess that if you’re making a real mess in there you may as well take off your clothes first and hop in the shower after. Don’t forget to brush your teeth.
Again, realism is not the issue. Christ is represented with small or even prepubescent genitals, but that’s common in Rennaissance sculpture. Michelangelo’s David, while physically impressive in other respects, is also modestly genitally endowed, and this is pretty typical.
This is in imitation of classical sculpture and art, where it was the convention to depict heroes, athletes, gods etc with small penises, while satyrs, drunkards, old men, barbarians and other non-ideal figures were given large penises, which were considered ridiculous. The small penis is associated with moderation, wisdom, perfection; the large penis with lust, foolishness and an unbalanced outlook.
Whether women of the classical period shared this assessment of the relative merits of small and large penises is not known. But our own culture’s obsession with penis size and assumption that big is best is largely a male phenomenon driven, no doubt, by masculine insecurity.
Very much not-Catholic; but I seem to remember reading that Martin Luther claimed to get a fair number of his perceivedly best insights / inspirations, while defecating.
Certainly not an odd question from a traditional Jewish point of view, where one is not supposed to speak or read or even think about anything Torah-related while using the toilet. As far as the nudity per se, silent prayer would be OK, but not out loud.
I think nudity should be a requirement in prayer. Metaphorical, if the weather is too inclement. Group prayer shall bow to modesty by lightly draping the congregation in sheets.
