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 the
recent 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 in
academic 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.