When I sat down to write this review was the first time I actually saw the sub-title for this book, "A Call to a Spiritual Reformation."  Maybe that explains why it made me feel like a ping-pong ball going back and forth from one chapter to another, and sometimes within a chapter.  At one point, about halfway through a chapter, the author wrote, "And what does this have to do with prayer?" and I uttered a not very quiet "Amen."  So let this be a warning before you pick this one up:  don't expect a guidebook to learning how to pray.  This is about much more than that, and sometimes the author cannot seem to decide if it's a book for scholars or a book for us ordinary folks who just want a better prayer life.

     The author does discuss eight, if I counted right, prayers of Paul.  And no, my prayers are not much like his.  Only occasionally have I reached the sort of profundity that his do.  This read did teach me how better to think about and thus word prayers like Paul's.  I wish Carson had spent much more time helping me be able to do that instead of just asking again and again, "Do your prayers sound like this?"  Perhaps I am just too practical, even too formulaic in my thinking, but certainly there are many others who just want a little more "how" discussion instead of just "what." 

     The most helpful chapters to me were the first where he does indeed give us a list of helpful hints and then the seventh—excuses given for not praying.  Be careful of your toes in that one.  I also found comfort and relief in the twelfth chapter in which he discusses the times that it seems our prayers are not answered, at least not in the way we would like them to be.  

     I found myself in other chapters wading through things I never expected due to the title of this book, and that left me aggravated more than helped.  Sometimes it seems like Carson cannot decide whether to write about theology or practicality.  Part of the problem is that his Calvinism, modern though it may be, creates paradoxes that non-Calvinists do not wrestle with, at least quite so much.  Yes, I believe in the sovereignty of God, but my God—and the God I believe the Bible shows us—is so powerful He can give us freewill in its greatest sense and still make His will come to pass.  So I pray, even trying to change His mind occasionally, because I believe my prayers will make a difference—HE said they would.  Carson stops every so often to wrestle with things like that and it gave me motion sickness, going back and forth from subject to subject.

     This writer has a reputation for scholarship and good writing and he certainly deserves it.  I will probably use quotes from this book on my blog's "Thirty Second Devo" entries.  But if you pick this one up, you have my permission to skip ahead every so often to find what truly helps you.

     Praying with Paul by D. A. Carson is published by Baker Academic.

Dene Ward

Yes, it's another book by those Ward people, our son Nathan, in this case.  This has become one of his most acclaimed books yet.

            So what's it about?  He does the rather remarkable thing, it seems,  of studying prayers by faithful servants of God in order to teach us how better to pray.  Even scholarly people, perhaps especially scholarly people, seem amazed at the concept.  But we who attempt to be First Century Christians in all our words and deeds are used to this.  If you want to know how to pray, look for approved examples in the Scriptures themselves.  If you want to know how to do anything, look in those same Scriptures!

            And what will you find out?  Some pretty comforting things actually.  Things like God will listen to our prayers no matter how poorly worded or awkward they are as long as they are humble, especially, and sincere.  That if we study the prayers of these saints our own prayers will change for the better.  That if we base our prayers upon the promises of God, we needn't worry they will not be heard.  That God expects our complaints and laments because they show our faith in Him to hear, care, and answer.  That if we begin with the physical and superficial in our prayers, it will help us move on to more spiritual concepts in our prayers.  That not all prayers need be all-encompassing; some can be quite specific and even short.  That faith always comes with action.  That what we pray for should first be viewed in how it will affect God's glory.  And on and on and on.

            I have read this book three times now, if you count the editing.  It grows more and more profound as I do.  Do yourself a favor and read it once through, then the second time go through more slowly, one chapter every other day, perhaps, so you have some meditating time in between, writing down notes short enough but specific enough to jog your memory for each chapter.  Then when you have a particular need, you can skim through them and find the chapter you might need to read again at that time.  Your prayers will be glad you did! 

And for those who always ask me, "Is this something I can really understand, or is it very scholarly?" Yes, you can understand it, and it will help you in one of the most important aspects of your life as a servant of God.

            Our Eyes Are on You is published by DeWard Publishing Company.

Dene Ward

Don't run away because of the title of this book.  The authors do believe that Jesus existed and was the Son of God.  The aim of authors Eddy and Boyd is to carefully study and ultimately call into question those who do not believe Jesus was the Son of God, or that he even existed. In order to do so, they very carefully distance themselves from their faith most of the way through the book in order to make their treatise as academic as possible.  Be aware that this is a scholarly treatise.  It is not easy to read, but if you are reasonably intelligent, as I believe my readers are, you can understand it and come away more assured about your own faith.

               The first chapter is nearly interminable.  Don't run away from that either.  Just read a section or two at a time, keeping a dictionary handy.  The authors are setting forth not only what they are investigating, but also how they plan to do it.  That part does get a little tedious, but I am not sure you will understand what you are reading if you skip it.  Once you are past that, it goes much more quickly.  In fact, the last half of the book is a breeze after that.

               The scholars the authors are speaking about say they are using the "historical-critical" method, which includes a naturalistic (no miracles allowed) approach to everything.  Eddy and Boyd show how this method is nothing more than post-Gutenberg Western Academia blowing their own horn as the only ones who are doing it right.  They are charged with chronocentrism, ethnocentrism and circular reasoning.  "When nothing is allowed to count as evidence against a presupposition, and when nothing is allowed to call into question one's metaphysical commitments, the commitment to the presupposition is, for all intents and purposes, a religious commitment to a dogma…This hardly seems consistent with a discipline that calls itself 'critical' and strives to be…objective and unbiased…in its assessment of evidence."  The authors then advocate an "open" historical-critical method, which they believe is much more fair and includes the humility to recognize that they are not the only intelligent ones out there.  More than once, Western Academia is scolded for its arrogance.  Some of the arguments made by these people to "prove" that the Gospels are no more than myth even I can answer.  The fact that Jesus' sermons on the same topic are often "different" in each gospel?  I am married to a preacher.  He often preaches the same sermons again and again, but he does not use exactly the same words.  It depends upon the audience for one thing, and anyone telling the same story more than once will use different words with each telling.  It is not a rote performance. 

               The authors answer every objection these scholars make in their own very scholarly way.  At the end, they don their theological hats for a final brief moment and say, "the Holy Spirit, personal commitment, and covenant trust must carry one the rest of the way.  If this work has, to any extent helped to clarify the solid historical grounds for this faith response, it has served its purpose."  I think it does exactly that.

               The Jesus Legend is published by Baker Academics and is also available on Kindle.

Dene Ward