Prayer and Temperament: Different Prayer Forms for Different Personality Types

With Isabel Briggs Myers' publication of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator in 1962, followed in 1978 by the David Kiersey and Marilyn Bates book, Please Understand Me, a tremendous new interest in the differences in human personality has taken place. The possiblity of a close connection between personality types and prayer and spirituality was conjectured by many persons. There has been much discussion on the topic, but almost nothing has been published. The present volume is among the first in print on the relationship between human temperament and prayer. The conclusions in this book are based on a Prayer Project conducted throughout 1982 with more than four hundred participants from all over the United States and even from Canada and Australia.The recommendations for the different forms of prayer appropriate for the different temperaments and personality types have been tested in a number of workshops, in parish retreats, and in spiritual direction of numerous persons. Without claiming to be the last word that can be said on this subject of prayer and temperament, the authors now offer their findings and conclusions to a wider audience. It is hoped that many others will find the same help to their prayer life and growth in spirituality that hundreds of other women and men have received.…