Customer Reviews

Praying with Our Hands: Twenty-One Practices of Embodied Prayer from the World's Spiritual Traditions

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

 

 

This unusual book caught my eye; I wasn't looking for anything about prayer. But it isn't your usual book about prayer, either. This is embodied prayer, prayer as our way of living. Pictured in beautiful black and whites and described in evocative prose, I feel like I can do prayer this way.

I found it very moving--and motivating--to look anew at my spiritual life.

This is a book I was prepared to love based upon a newspaper review. Having read the book I have a far more ambivalent opinion - the concept for the book is excellent, the photography is excellent, the research for quotations is excellent - but the book is filled with over-simplifications. For example, it refers to the "Boddhisatva" ideal in Buddhism as if were basic - in fact, the southern school of Buddhism does not share this as an ideal. It refers to the practice of clearing the mind and non-attachment as if this separated mind from body and nature, whereas many of the traditions see these practices as making one more aware of the physical world as it is i.e. minus the distorting factor of mind. It refers to the washing of feet as "little known", an editorial comment that would puzzle most Catholics and other "high church" Christians. It speaks of gifts of the spirit (charisms) as if they belong to an exclusively Pentecostal strain of Christianity.

While the book occasionally notes its oversimplification, I am not comfortable with balance it achieves. It is, however, an excellent way to introduce the concept of physicality in prayer. It's photos and text firmly place physical prayer into the mainstream of religious practice and firmly negate any "new age" or "new fangled" charges leveled against it.

If Amazon.com allowed more stars I'd give this a 10. I've written several books and wish that I could have thought up one that was as good as this on spirituality in general and prayer in particular. Believers and seekers of all traditions should find "Praying with Our Hands" inspiring. Sensitive photographs and lavish layout--a bargain gift book.

I was recently given this book by a friend. It was just what I needed to help me look at prayer in a new way. I was taught to pray by my grandmother many many years ago--but this is something entirely different. She would have liked it too!

Although I have not read his book, I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Sweeney at a book signing in San Francisco. A seemingly good man with a firm handshake, he struck me as just the sort of person who knows books and would enjoy writing one. Congratulations Mr. Sweeney and good luck in the future. Much love in Jesus Name!

Although I have not read his book, I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Sweeney at a book signing in San Francisco. A seemingly good man with a firm handshake, he struck me as just the sort of person who knows books and would enjoy writing one. Congratulations Mr. Sweeney and good luck in the future. Much love in Jesus Name!