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The Prayer of Jabez and Christian Spirituality: A Critical Evaluation of Bruce Wilkinson's Jabez Teaching

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I am providing this summary of the book because prospective buyers currently are unable to preview it using the "Look Inside" link. I gave myself only 4 stars because there are a few minor flaws with the book that have been rectified in a forthcoming second edition.

The Prayer of Jabez and Christian Spirituality: A Critical Evaluation of Bruce Wilkinson's Jabez Teaching is a penetrating and thorough criticism of well-known author Bruce Wilkinson's phenomenal best-seller, The Prayer of Jabez: Breaking Through to the Blessed Life. The book is divided into three main sections:

The introductory section examines basic issues involved in interpreting the Bible and how these important issues pertain to Wilkinson's book.

Part One (the second main section) looks at three aspects of Christian spirituality that are relevant to Wilkinson's claims in The Prayer of Jabez. (1) Wilkinson's god is a "user-friendly" deity who sanctions and accommodates, rather than judges and subverts, the market-driven ideology, pragmatism and sensationalism of contemporary North American culture. (2) Jabez renders a portrait of following Jesus Christ that accentuates the glamorous and the triumphal while downplaying the hard teachings of Jesus concerning suffering and self-denial. (3) Jabez conceives of the Christian life as one in which ministry is done on an almost purely individual level, thereby sorely neglecting the centrality and indispensability of the church in the work of Christian ministry.

Part Two (the third main section) examines four problems with Wilkinson's doctrine. In particular, it is noted that these teachings do not square with those of the Bible, despite the fact that Wilkinson professes to be teaching things that are in harmony with the Bible. (1) Wilkinson does not understand that God deals with human beings by way of covenant relationships. Because of this lack of understanding, he misuses the prayer of Jabez by transplanting it from its native soil in the Old Testament (where it thrived) to a makeshift, New Testament pot where it withers. (2) The god portrayed in Jabez possesses characteristics contrary to those attributed to the God of the Bible. These false attributes include an inability to enact His will without the permission of human beings and a special fondness for the Jabez prayer. (3) Jabez fails to acknowledge the pivotal role of Jesus Christ as Divine Mediator of human prayer. Instead, the prayer of Jabez is said to work (in fact it is guaranteed to work) because of something about the prayer itself, apparently apart from Jesus and His mediatorial role. (4) Jabez ignores fundamental biblical concerns regarding salvation in Jesus Christ. Basic Christian truths such as Christ's sacrifice of atonement and justification by faith are simply set aside, giving the impression that the Jabez prayer has an inherent potency to achieve desired results rather than being part of a larger framework in which Jesus Christ provides the way for sinful men and women to be reconciled to God and thereby petition Him with the expectation of a gracious response.

The book concludes with a summary evaluation, a brief look at Wilkinson's current ministry in Africa, and three appendices. The first appendix examines where the Devil does and doesn't fit into the Bible's view of prayer and Christian ministry. The second takes a look at some of what the Bible has to say about prayer more generally speaking. The third is a substantial book review of the sequel to The Prayer of Jabez (and the second in a trilogy of books on Christian living by Wilkinson), Secrets of the Vine.

The target audience for this book primarily is evangelical Christians in North America. However, anyone with an interest in how a biblical perspective shapes Christian spirituality, aids in grasping Christian doctrine, and provides a basis for criticism of our culture, should find the book both informative and provocative.

The most important thing about this book is the way in which it demonstrates the biblically unfaithful, culture-bound character of much of modern evangelicalism and the radical difference between it and authentic, biblical Christianity.