Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers: Prayer for Ordinary Radicals (Paperback)

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Key Phrases: Holy Spirit, Peculiar People, Beloved Community (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This latest publication from the new monasticism movement is the third book each for the two young Christian activist-authors, and it offers fresh insight on the well-worn topic of prayer. Some themes are repeated from earlier works, but the book deftly succeeds in drawing the reader out of the weeds of daily life and into a more spacious field. The text is structured around three New Testament prayers: the Lord's Prayer, Christ's intercessory prayer in Chapter 17 of the Gospel of John and Paul's prayer in the first chapter of Ephesians. From the very first pronoun of the familiar Lord's Prayer ("our"), the authors extract a compelling sermon on the power and centrality of community in Christian life and thought. The dominant theme--that prayer invites human beings into a partnership with God in answering prayer--is enlivened with earthy tales from the authors' own lives, wrenching stories of service and redemption from the people they know and lesser-known anecdotes from Christian history and sociology. Readers will never see prayer or community in quite the same way again. (Oct.)
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Product Description

"Prayer is not so much about convincing God to do what we want God to do as it is about convincing ourselves to do what God wants us to do." --from the Introduction

Activists Shane Claiborne and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove show how prayer and action must go together. Their exposition of key Bible passages provides concrete examples of how a life of prayer fuels social engagement and the work of justice. Phrases like "give us this day our daily bread" and "forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors" take on new meaning when applied to feeding the hungry or advocating for international debt relief.

If you hope to see God change society, you must be an ordinary radical who prays--and then is ready to become the answer to your own prayers.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 124 pages
• Publisher: IVP Books (October 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0830836225
• ISBN-13: 978-0830836222
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #44,350 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a small book written with great love, October 8, 2008

By	Scandalous Sanity (Texas) - See all my reviews

Shane Claiborne, mostly known for his book The Irresistible Revolution and Jesus for President, has teamed up with Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, author of New Monasticism and Free to Be Bound, to explore the nature of prayer as it concerns to "ordinary radicals."

The book explores in depth three major prayers found within the new testament. They focus on the Lord's Prayer, Jesus' prayer for his disciples in John 17, and Pauls prayer to the church in Ephesians(1:15-23). The over running theme, as they look at these three examples of prayer, is that prayer necessitates action.

The book is extremely well written. The two voices of the authors intermingle so well that, without the help of parenthetical notings, one would assume that there is but one voice coming from the pages. Whether this is intentional or not, I can't say. But it does further drive home another major point, that we are to be one in spirit.

The book hits on issues of politics, economics, community, justice, the Holy Spirit, and the intricacies of prayer found within all of these. Anybody who is looking for a book with some girth to it concerning prayer this book would be a beneficial read. It takes no attention away from the art of praying or the church, but pushes for reflection on the prayers of the saints and early christians so that we may see that prayer becomes mere murmering to God when we fail to follow up with appropriate actions. Instead of praying for people's burdens, this book will push you to make others burdens your own, as we are called.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Book on (un)Common Prayer, October 22, 2008

By	Eric N. Tonjes (St. Louis, MO USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Many teachers I've read tend to emphasize what prayers does, not to God, but to the person praying. They argue that the primary purpose of prayer is to make our hearts more like God's rather than His more like ours. I'm inclined to agree, at least in large part, and this is the tact taken by Shane Claiborne and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove in their new book Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers: Prayer for Ordinary Radicals. The two authors examine the Lord's Prayer, Jesus' high priestly prayer from John 17, and a prayer of Paul, all the while asking the question "How should the priorities here inform the way we live?"

Those of you who have read Shane before will see many of the same themes here: social justice, community, love for the least of these. He and Jonathan do a pretty good job of linking them to the texts themselves. At the same time, I felt like this book was a clear demonstration of the fact that, despite accusations to the contrary, they're thoroughly evangelical.

Two things stood out to me about this book. One was the way the authors managed to pull off an admirable co-writing project. Rather than simply writing different parts of the book as individuals, the two consistently use the plural when talking about themselves, slipping into singular only to tell personal stories (of which there are a number; both these young men have certainly lived eventful lives). I was impressed by how well they worked as a team.

The other thing I liked were the prayers interspersed through the book. Interspersed with the text are little boxes with different prayers from saints and liturgies. Many of these were fantastic, and I especially appreciated how historically-rooted and catholic the selection was. Too many young evangelicals have never been exposed to the rich tradition we have from the early and medieval church, and this is a good place to start.

My biggest complaint about this book is that the actual exegesis of Scripture is a mixed bag. Shane and Jonathan clearly have an agenda coming to the texts, and I think there are times that this shows in their readings of the different prayers. They have a tendency to read a text and then take one application and say "Here! This is what it means!" This is fine as long as it's recognized that it's one of many things you could do with the text, but at times I get the feeling the authors would feel like their emphasis is the only one the prayers could give you, and I'm not so sure. That said, I don't want to be too harsh on them; every time you use a text to make a point you necessarily do this, and I'm not unhappy with the points they're making.

I enjoyed this book. It came at a time when my life has been busy, so I feel like I wasn't able to soak in it as much as I would have liked. However, I think some of the prayers littered throughout it will pay rich dividends down the road, so I'm sure I'll be picking it up again.

I'd recommend the book if you like Shane or Jonathan, or more general if you are active in areas of social justice and struggle to connect that with your prayer life. I should note that this is not a manual on how to pray. If you're a new believer or someone seeking advice in this area, I'd recommend Thomas Watson's The Lord's Prayer and Andrew Murray's With Christ in the School of Prayer.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Lacking Clarity but Needs to Be Heard, October 20, 2008

By	Andrew Means "www.andrewmeans.typepad.com" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

I think Shane did so amazing on Jesus for President that I went into this book with very high expectations. I think that both Shane and Jonathan have amazing stories and experiences that need to be shared and so I was disappointed in how desultory the book felt. I didn't quite always get the connection between the prayers they were using and what they were saying and I think they could have done a better job connecting prayer and action.

That being said, these men deserve a voice. They are doing amazing things with their lives and they have something to share. And there are definitely glimpses of that in this book, I just think it could have been better.