Customer Reviews

2000 Years of Prayer

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book, while it contains many "pretty" texts, would be most useful and interesting to someone who has studied or has an interest in church history or theology.

This is a large and sweeping collection, and attempts to represent everyone from Clement of Rome to the Cappadocians to sixth-century Chinese Nestorians to Julian of Norwich to Ulrich Zwingli to Teresa of Avila to the Puritans to Isaac Watts to Susanna Wesley to Jonathan Edwards to Samuel Taylor Coleridge to John Newton to Soren Kierkegaard to the Bronte sisters to Robert Louis Stevenson to Dwight Moody to Harry Emerson Fosdick to e.e. cummings to James Weldon Johnson to the Taize Community to Janet Morley to Thomas Merton to Billy Graham. Each entry contains a brief but generally helpful paragraph to "set the scene." I only wish his footnotes, which deal mostly with intellectual property rights, gave more information on his primary sources, although that would probably turn it into an unmanageable tome.

I'd mark this one a "must have."

As is air to a balloon and as energy to the human body, so prayer is to human dreams and hopes. Though filled with prayers, Michael Counsell's collection is a small fraction of the rich treasure trove of Christian prayers for two millennia. That accounts for some favorites missing, such as, Chief Seattle (1790-1866) and failure to mention John Newton's "Amazing Grace" (346). The historical sourcing is priceless from Gloria Patri and Doxology (Thomas Ken, 294) to Reinhold Niebuhr's Serenity Prayer (1934, 451) and more. God's footsteps show through their prayer life.

No tiresome compendium, it opens a brilliant cascade of light touching upon and helping every condition of the human heart, joyful to grief-stricken.

In spite of few errors, birth-death dates of Menno Simons (1496-1561, 183) and George Whitefield (1714-1770, 319) and Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887, 421), and a few misspellings (410, 464, 546), Counsell's book will enrich every reader's spiritual life. And perhaps he will grace us with a companion volume. It is not too much to say that every pastor and seeker should read it.

The Rev. Dr. Charles G. Yopst, D.Min., D.T.R., Hospital Chaplain, Expressive Arts Therapist, Presbyterian Pastor, Chicago area 1/8/2003

This comprehensive compendium of prayers can teach by example from spiritual giants of Christian history. Christian prayers from those of differing theological persuasions but still within the orthodox umbrella are included under differing categories like periods of time. This tome can be used by the novice as well as the mature and sophisticated especially by those who are students of prayer,its history and passion for its varieties of expression.

For 55 years I used various prayers as a part of the weekly preparation for my church music and liturgy groups. There are some pretty good prayer makers published -- Shea and his student Bartocci, for example, and some very nice compilations -- Collins, Ford-Grabowsky and Washington for example. But none of the aforementioned have the breadth and diversity of this Counsell tome. That is not to say that should you need a prayer for a specific event or situation this would be your resource, rather if your need is defined by a fit with a particular historical era, branch of religion or perhaps arcane organization, "2000 Years Of Prayer" is your go to place to start. It's a thick (644 pages paperback)and sometimes erudite work. But I've found it utterly delightful and I'm digesting it at 3 pages a day as a spiritual and intellectual exercise for this year.