Prayer: A Guide for the Perplexed

by Dr Ashley Cocksworth

At the heart of Christian life and liturgy is the practice of prayer, that distinctive and yet utterly perplexing act, which believers and non-believers alike struggle to understand. Drawing on the rich resources of the Christian tradition of prayer and spirituality (including Origen, Augustine, the Reformers, Karl Barth,Hans Urs von Balthasar and Thomas Merton), liturgical resources, and biblical material, this book guides the reader through some of the fundamental questions, tricky issues, and complex themes surrounding the problem of prayer from a Christian perspective. Additionally, Cocksworth describes and investigates therecent re-turns to theologies of prayer and spirituality in contemporary academic theology and ethics (including, amongst others, in the work of Rowan Williams, Sarah Coakley, Stanley Hauerwas and Samuel Wells) and provides some reflections on why prayer has suddenly once again become quite fashionable inacademic discourse. Finally, Cocksworth examines some of the problems in various popular approaches to prayer that market prayer in terms of individual therapy or are dominated by issues of efficacy and the promise to pray better.