Quote:
Kristoffer O said:
 Is god calling a prayer?
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Yes. "I humbly beseech thy swift return, O mighty Lord! Thy people are in direst need of thee." It would be utter blasphemy to believe that one could
summon a
deity, as one might summon some common beast.
Quote:
Kristoffer O said:
Why is the prayer more religious than preaching? This is a matter of definition of the term religion.
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Definition is irrelevent. Preaching is the swaying of others to one's faith, and/or the instruction of those faithful and heathen into the glories of one's faith. Prayer, OTOH, is (ostensibly) the direct communion with one's deity. Now you tell me which is more holy? Preaching is hawking goods (faith), which is basically salesmanship. It is also education (or more accurately, dogmatic indoctrination, but that leads into a separate discussion which doesn't belong on this forum) of the masses. Prayer is an actual expression and practice of one's faith (as is sacrifice and various sundry other actions).
Having said the above, the calling of one's god, in game terms, is a ritualized ceremony done by one or more priests with the explicit and sole purpose of summoning said deity. It is inconsistent for the game to exclude this particular ritual from receiving the thematic bonus simply because it is focused at one's god and not the god's followers or enemies. It's also illogical from the standpoint that if the god is empowering his/her/its followers with enhanced priestly ability so as to better spread the faith, you'd think said god might want his/her/its followers to be able to bring him/her/it back from the dead ASAP so that said faith won't falter.
Quote:
Kristoffer O said:
Personal religion, in wich prayer is indeed more important than preaching, is somewhat of a modern development.
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You are SO wrong about this. You have it backwards. Preaching is a "modern" development. Modern in the sense of having arisen with civilization and writing. Pagan religions dating back to prehistoric times, including one of the oldest, Wicca (which remains somewhat popular even today), are much more focused on prayer and ritual and far less on evangelization and dogmatic instruction. Preaching is a tool that was developed to control commonfolk and bend them to the will of their rulers, who in ancient and medieval times were religious figures (or in certain countries even today).