Prayer: A History

Philip and Carol Zaleski have done a marvelous thing in Prayer: A History…they have brought prayer to our doorstep and into our bedroom, back to the kneeling rug of childhood.

From the book jacket:

“This landmark book presents prayer in all its richness and variety throughout history, across traditions, and around the globe. Focusing on extraordinary stories of lives changed by prayer and on great works of literature and art inspired by it, Philip and Carol Zaleski map the vast world of prayer from the sacred pipe to the rosary, from Paleolithic cave art to Pentecostal revivals…Examining prayer as petition, thanksgiving, adoration, contemplation, ecstasy, magic, and scrifice, the Zaleskis probe the language of prayer, the fruits of prayer, its controversies, and its prospects for the future…informative, accessible, and entertaining narrative that will appeal to an audience of all faiths….”

This is a book I’ll be going back to and dipping in to as I consider my own relationship to prayer and how this fits into the context of history (since even pre-history).