A cluster of church-state concerns, such as the role of religious values in public policy, begs the underlying question of the spiritual fiber found in Americans' private lives. THE VITALITY OF prayer is a key measure of America's religious character, a subject that attracted keen interest during the recent political campaigns. There he meets briefly before work with a small interdenominational group of professional men who, hands folded and eyes closed, share their concerns with one another and their God.įine's story is being repeated all over the United States in a multitude of versions by those who have come to the realization that the human predicament requires a spiritual answer.įrom burgeoning numbers of retreat houses and spiritual centers of various faiths, the message is the same: a prayer revival is the most powerful, least-documented development within modern American religion today. On Friday mornings, Fine, who is now the senior deacon of the Stanwich Congregational Church in Greenwich, makes a special prayer stop at an Ivy League club in Manhattan. The intermittent silent dialogue, he says, brings a much-needed serenity to his days. ''I didn't hear bells ring or see neon signs flash it was just like talking to someone personally.''Ī lanky, deliberate man with a scholarly air, Fine now describes his days as filled with snatches of conversational prayer that oftentimes begin in the shower, continue during a train commute from Greenwich, Conn., and carry on through a busy schedule of meetings.
''For years, I had wanted to pray, but I didn't know how.'' Then the dam burst. ''It started when I just wanted to thank God for getting me past the drug scene,'' Fine says. But these days, Fine, a 31-year-old Manhattan corporate real estate executive, carries on what amounts to a running conversation with God. FINE ONCE REJECTED THE FAITH of his forefathers as ''intellectually incompatible'' with his thinking.
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