When Prayer Takes Place: Forays into a Biblical World

J. Gerald Janzen

Nov 2012 · Wipf and Stock Publishers

About this ebook

Where in the world was Jesus when he prayed? Where is any one of us when we pray? Since we are embodied creatures, our prayer location can be mapped onto space-time coordinates. Since we are social creatures, our prayers are also situated within our social locations. But do these sets of coordinates exhaustively identify the place that prayer takes when truly entered into? Conversely, can either set totally prevent prayer from taking place there? These questions lie at the intersection of resolutely religious vis-a-vis resolutely secular understandings of existence. The studies in this volume explore dimensions of these issues traced in selected texts from both parts of the Christian Bible.

About the author

J. Gerald Janzen is MacAllister-Petticrew emeritus Professor of Old Testament at Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis. He has published commentaries on Genesis 12-50, Exodus, and Job, and his most recent book is At the Scent of Water: The Ground of Hope in the Book of Job (2009). Brent A. Strawn is an associate professor of Old Testament at the Candler School of Theology and Graduate Division of Religion at Emory University. He recently edited The Bible and the Pursuit of Happiness: What the Old and New Testaments Teach Us about the Good Life (2012). Patrick D. Miller is Charles T. Haley Professor of Old Testament Theology emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary. He recently authored The Ten Commandments (2009).