William Kent Krueger, Northwest Angle

Thanks to Amazon Vine and the publisher for the review copy.

In this mystery filled with wonderful texture, Cork O'Connor and his family encounter mysterious evil forces in the aftermath of an epic storm that sweeps across the Lake of the Woods. While vacationing near the Northwest Angle in northern Minnesota, the O'Connors are caught in a fierce and destructive storm which scatters them across the lake. Jenny, Cork's daughter, washes up on a small island and discovers, in the storm's aftermath, a murdered woman and her hidden infant. This sets in motion a great chase, as unknown forces seem to be after the child. The O'Connors are eventually reuinted, but the plot only thickens as they begin to put the pieces together. The murdered woman, Lily Smalldog, worked for a reclusive band of fundamentalist Christians driven by apocalyptic visions of the End Times, and though they seemed to care for her, something doesn't seem right. Meanwhile, Lily's fugitive brother is on the loose, and Cork needs to figure out how he fits into the puzzle before more people get killed.

Krueger writes like a Tony Hillerman of the North, as Cork's Ojibwe heritage and the Native American background of the mother and baby come to play a key role in the story. He also develops a number of the characters, as each wrestles with the past, as well as trying to forge a way into the future. Jenny agonizes over her relationship with her boyfriend, Aaron, with the question of children at the center of the conflict. Cork is tring to move forward after the death of his wife, and is reluctant to be caught up in more violence. And in numerous characters, as well as in the main plotline of the book, the nature and identity of God/The Great Mystery become a key element, with the certainty of the fundamentalists and their End Times vision of God occupying one extreme, Henry Meloux and Amos Powassin, two Objiwe wise men and their vision of The Great Mystery on the other end, with Mal and Rose, Cork's brother- and sister-in law, and their Catholicism occupying a more moderate voice. Cork embodies this larger theme, with his spirituality coming "as much from the teaching of men like Henry Meloux, the old Ojibwe Mide, as it did from the text of the New Testament" (181). This honest wrestling with God's nature and purposes lends an agreeable depth and reflectiveness to the mystery genre and serves to make this a great read, both as a compelling mystery and as a work of thoughtful fiction. Though I personally may not agree with the way Cork chooses to resolve some of these themes (in what appears to be an easy syncretism between Ojibwe spirituality and Christianity), I do appreciate the authenticity of the questions and the perspectives that are being portrayed, and hope the dialogue continues in his future books.

In capturing the texture of the Lake of the Woods (I had the pleasure of reading the first half of the book while on a fishing trip there), and the people who live there, as well as building deep and interesting characters, Krueger has written a great book. I look forward to reading some of his others.

Paul Copan, "True for You but Not for Me"

Thanks to Bethany House for the review copy. In this second edition of "True For You But Not For Me," philosopher Paul Copan lays out a very clear and readable exposition of the philosophical foundations for Christian belief. The book is oriented around responses to common objections, with each chapter focusing on a particular slogan or objection, such as "It's all a matter of perspective," or "Christianity is arrogant and imperialistic." The chapters are divided up into five parts, which move in progression from the general concept of truth (looking at relativism and moral relativism in parts one and two), to the basic truth of a God-centered worldview (religions relativism, part three), to the centrality of Christ (parts four and five). This organization mirrors Copan's overarching method for apologetics, what he calls "Truth-God-Jesus," asserting that an understanding of the existence and importance of truth will provide the foundation for a genuine belief in God, which will in turn provide the necessary framework for recognition of Jesus Christ as the only way to be saved.

A few notes about the content, which I won't otherwise attempt to summarize here because of the breadth of the treatment. First, he emphasizes over and over (to good effect) the exclusivity of supposed "relativist" philosophies, whether in regard to truth, morality, or religion. He also engages John Hick in extended dialogue in part three regarding religious pluralism. Also worthy of note is that part five consists of an extended discussion of the fate of the unevangelized, with a number of live evangelical options presented and considered (he seems to lean toward a middle-knowledge view, which he ends with).

Copan argues very clearly, and lays out complex issues in a helpful and accessible way. Each chapter is concluded with a bullet-point summary of the important arguments made in the chapter, making the book a ready reference. Copan also demonstrates broad familiarity with the biblical text and up-to-date knowledge of a good range of contemporary biblical studies (with well-placed references to, for example, Richard Bauckham, N. T. Wright, Douglas Moo, Ben Witherington, etc.).

In all, I would say Copan's book achieves its aims admirably. It will serve Christians well who want to better understand their faith and who want to know how to respond to or how to maintain their faith in the face of many common and often vexing objections.

Good as the privation of evil?

I've been focusing my reading on Pauline studies for the last year or so, and it's been a blast. One of the key issues that comes up again and again, in Paul's letters no less than in the vast literature they have spawned, is the meaning of righteousness, especially God's righteousness. So this has got me reflecting on what I think it is. I think, for many Christians, the answer would involve something revolving around God's holiness, understood as God's perfection and total absence of sin. It is something (akin to a pristine state, innocence) that God imparts to us as a gift. Now, I can't think of anything at all wrong with any of that (though I know some people would certainly quibble with it), but I also think it's woefully incomplete.

In Pauline studies, there is a big discussion of God's righteousness as understood objectively (a righteousness that God possesses and gives to believers) or subjectively (a quality or activity of God that brings about or entails or results in God's saving work). And while I think something of both positions carries valid and important truth, I think there is immense value in looking at God's righteousness subjectively, as something like God's faithfulness and his saving action. I think this helps us go beyond a perspective of good (held implicitly or explicitly) as that which is without evil (though that is a perfectly fine affirmation) to fill that most excellent category of God's righteousness with some amazing content: God's loving faithfulness, his saving grace, his patient purpose.

These few reflections certainly don't even begin to scratch the surface of the exegetical issues entailed in the discussion, but I hope they can be some valuable reflection on Christmas, and God's loving gift in sending his Son. For in Jesus God's righteousness is surely revealed.

God's Word for the flood

My parents live on the Red River in Moorhead, MN, so we have spent the past couple weeks sandbagging and battling the flood waters, and are getting ready for a second crest next week. There were many sleepless nights, and it was touch and go a number of times. So far, they have emerged with some water damage to the lower level, including losing all of the carpet. But they were able to stop the leak and pump the water back out, so the house itself seems fine, as is the furnace. The first night I did dike duty over night, my cousins Ricky and David and I sat up in my parents' sun porch watching the pumps and listening to the radio, and at about 2:30 AM, we heard the report that our school, Oak Grove Lutheran School in Fargo, ND, had sustained a dike breach. (The whole school was severely damaged in the 1997, and a permanant flood wall was built after that flood; they are also just completing a multi-million-dollar renovation of the campus, including a new fine arts center, fitness area, and other major renovations.) And as we listened over the next two hours, we heard the agonizing news that the permanent wall had indeed failed, and that the National Guard was unable to stop the water. Two buildings sustained major damage, and there was fear that the whole campus could again be inundated. This was very discouraging news.

A little later, around 5 AM, I picked up the Book of Common Prayer off a nearby shelf to help me stay awake, and came immediately upon Psalm 29. Let me preface this by saying that Psalm 29 has held no special meaning to me before, and in fact I could have told you nothing about what it said. (None of these things applies any more, as you will see.) But as I read the Psalm, I was overwhelmed by how powerfully these words spoke to the situation that night.

1 Ascribe to the LORD, O mighty ones,
ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.

2 Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name;
worship the LORD in the splendor of his [a] holiness.

3 The voice of the LORD is over the waters;
the God of glory thunders,
the LORD thunders over the mighty waters.

4 The voice of the LORD is powerful;
the voice of the LORD is majestic.

5 The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars;
the LORD breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.

6 He makes Lebanon skip like a calf,
Sirion [b] like a young wild ox.

7 The voice of the LORD strikes
with flashes of lightning.

8 The voice of the LORD shakes the desert;
the LORD shakes the Desert of Kadesh.

9 The voice of the LORD twists the oaks [c]
and strips the forests bare.
And in his temple all cry, "Glory!"

10 The LORD sits [d] enthroned over the flood;
the LORD is enthroned as King forever.

11 The LORD gives strength to his people;
the LORD blesses his people with peace.

I have been struck by the power of God's Word before on many occasions, but I was awe-struck by the amazing power in those words, as if God wrote them just for that morning. Imagine reading the words in bold as you sit looking out over record-level flood waters that are threatening to devastate whole towns, and as you have just heard about unexpected and serious devastation to Oak Grove. It was quite an experience. But what struck me most was the final lines of the psalm, that in the midst of all of this, God gives strength and peace. And I was called back to the beginning of the psalm, called to ascribe glory to God. I have no doubt that God has already used the flood, and the devastation at Oak Grove, for his glory. He certainly has in my life. And listening to the president of Oak Grove, Bruce Messelt, talk to the media the next morning with such confidence and thankfulness to God despite the flood's destruction, all I could think was that the psalm was being lived right there as I listened, and I'm confident that it will continue to be lived as the weeks and months pass.

It is awesome to be confronted by God's Word, and even greater to know that God's Spirit is using it even still, speaking powerful and true words right down to today. God is a great God, more powerful than flood waters, glorified even amid devastation. How awesome to know and be known by such a faithful God.

The closest we get to heaven . . .

My son Lucas had just awakened from his nap. As I held him, he snuggled into my shoulder for a minute or two--waking up is so hard. And as I enjoyed his embrace, it occurred to me that that feeling, loving embrace, may be the closest we get to heaven in this life. I've just enjoyed a couple wonderful books on the Trinity (Coppedge, The God Who Is Triune, and Shults, Reforming the Doctrine of God), and one of the beautiful pictures they paint is of God's life as a mutual sharing and indwelling and relating. Instead of thinking of God as a static monad, we develop a picture of dynamic, vibrant life and love. Further, we come to reimagine our relationship to God. We come to see salvation as including the joining of our lives to the Trinitarian life, a participating with God in this beautiful relationship. Paul uses the image of marriage to point toward the beautiful intimacy and union the church shares with Christ, and likewise the Gospel of John repeatedly talks of Jesus' unity with the father and believers' unity with Christ. There is a beautiful embrace that takes place here. (Cf. Miroslav Volf, Exclusion and Embrace; I'll need to go back and give it some attention when the opportunity presents itself.) So, I say, the beautiful contented and loving embrace of a father with child and of a husband and a wife are the closest we get here on Earth to experiencing everlasting life. And that's a great thought.

F. LeRon Shults, Reforming the Doctrine of God

In Reforming the Doctrine of God, LeRon Shults takes a sustained look at theology proper, but he does it with an important contemporary twist. Shults asserts that theology must be done as a "messy reciprocity between our ideas about God and everything else" (12). That is, theology is (inevitably) conditioned by our understanding of the world, just as it conditions that same understanding. It is with this basic insight in mind that he sets out to reform the doctrine of God.

Why reform? The reason, as laid out in the first part of the book, is because too much of theology has been inextricably linked with outmoded philosophical categories that see God as immaterial substance, single subject, and first cause. These categories, he asserts, lead to problems with our thinking about God that are created more by the categories than by the reality they seek to illuminate. In the second part of the book, Shults looks at a number of "late modern" trends that can prove as resources to reinvigorate our thinking about God by overcoming some of the philosophical barriers of modern thinking. Specifically, he looks at divine infinity, the trinity, and eschatological ontology as three important streams of thought that are reshaping how we think of God.

In this review, I'm not going to try to expound either of these parts in detail, for a couple of reasons. First, and probably most important, philosophical theology is not my own specialty, and I fear any summary I give would only distort his points, rather than illuminating them. Second, he draws on a broad range of streams of modern and late modern thought in his critiques and constructions, and a concise summary would not do them justice, especially if you aren't already familiar with his subjects. But, a few comments will hopefully give at least some insight in to where he is going.

Shults demonstrates, successfully, I think, that some of the classic dilemmas in theology, such as how God works in the world or how divine sovereignty and human freedom are compatible, are at least in part caused by assumptions and categories that are foreign to the Bible. His second point, worked out in part two, is that many late modern thinkers have begun to rethink some of these basic assumptions and have collectively reclaimed some important ways of thinking about God that have been too often lost or diminished in modern theological thinking. And in each chapter he surveys a number of important thinkers from a variety of perspectives, such as Karl Barth, Jürgen Moltmann, Wolfhart Pannenberg, and John Zizioulas, to show the sources and contours of these important developments. The three streams that are recovered focus on God's infinity (God is more than just "extensively" greater than creatures but is genuinely "other"), trinity (God is not a single substance or mind but is dynamic relationality in himself), and futurity (God relates to time not only as its originator but as its upholder and as its future hope and consummation). All of this is helped by what he calls a "turn to relationality" in philosophy, with a movement away from a more substance-based view of reality to the acknowledgment as relationship or relationality as basic to the constitution of what it means to be person.

It is in part three that the the real "reforming" takes place, as Shults seeks to rebuild the doctrine of God through a critical appropriation of many of the late modern trajectories into a constructive exposition of theology. He looks at God's knowing, acting, and being through the themes of omniscient faithfulness, omnipotent love, and omnipresent hope. As with the first two parts, I won't try to recreate the flow of his argument. Instead, I want to note that he takes head on three of the thorny (and fascinating) issues that confront theology, the "antinomies" of divine foreknowledge, divine predestination, and divine timelessness. In each case, he surveys the state of the discussion and proposes a way forward that liberates the discussion from the classic categories that create the problems in the first place. In each case, I found his proposals to be insightful and liberating while remaining true to the core biblical insights that provide the foundation for the discussions. Just these three discussions are easily worth the price of the book, but I think the book's greatest value is that the "solutions" to these three problems point toward a richer and more dynamic doctrine of God.

I read the whole third part of this book with growing appreciation and excitement, and I look forward to delving in to Shults's other books and seeing how his vision plays out across the various ares of theology. But I know that the groundwork laid here is deeply valuable. It certainly struck a chord with me both in its freshness and its faithfulness. I look forward to rereading these final chapters again as I reflect on who God is and how we think of him. This book is highly recommended, though it certainly contains a lot of technical language. It is at times a rather difficult read, but it will repay a careful reading. For anyone who is interested in contemporary evangelical theology, this book is essential reading, and is a profound example of a vibrant and delightful investigation and appreciation of who God is.

Allan Coppedge, The God Who Is Triune

In The God Who Is Triune, subtitled Revisioning the Christian Doctrine of God, Coppedge undertakes a systematic exposition of the doctrine of God. The key to the book, though, as its title makes clear, is that Coppedge draws on the triunity of God as the key for his reconstruction. The book opens with two chapters laying out the New Testament evidence, larger biblical "frame," and early theological developments toward understanding God as triune, making a case that understanding God as three in one and one in three, as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is essential to understanding who God is. He then goes on to construct a fuller doctrine of God, covering the classic themes of God's attributes, creation, and providence, but he does it all after laying the trinitarian groundwork and in light of these fundamental insights. This makes Coppedge's book a valuable contribution to the field.

Coppedge's material on the Trinity is very well done, and I think he lays out very clearly and helpfully the essentials necessary for constrcting a theology of the Trinity. He shows much sympathy toward an Eastern approach to the Trinity that starts more from God's threeness and goes on to assert God's unity, though he also shows sympathies toward the more Western, Augistinian approach of starting from God's unity. Overall, though, this Eastern trend helps give the trinitarian drama to his whole presentation, as it keeps the vibrant interrelational life of God center stage as moves on to discuss God's being and attributes and God's relation to creation.

One of the defining insights of the book is that a Trinitiarian starting point means that when one moves to discussing God, the traditional four categories of attributes are still discussed--personal, moral, relative, and absolute--but they are approached in a different order. Coppedge begins with God's personal attributes (discussing attributes such as God's social nature, life, heart, moral capacity, freedom, creativity, and responsibility) and moral attributes. Only then does he move on to God's relative and absolute attributes. This means that God's sociality, will, freedom, and righteousness come before and exercise a controling role over attributes such as omnipotence. The result of this is that a picture of a vibrant, alive, relating God comes to the fore. This doesn't lessen God's glory or holiness, or diminish God's transcendence, but it means that who God is isn't lost in discussions of what God is capable of. Instead of focusing on God's being in himself, with a focus on God's unity as the omnipotent and omnipresent being above and beyond the universe one meets God as Father, Son, and Spirit, forever relating as living, loving, active beings who come to meet us in holiness and invite us to enter into their trine life. That, to me, is the refreshing aspect of this book. The Doctrine of God doesn't become abstract philosophical discussions about categories of being, though it does contain that, but it focuses instead on God as he makes himself known in a personal way. The focus is thereby supremely on God as made known in Jesus Christ, who becomes the key for our understanding of who God is.

I found Coppedge's expositon of the entire doctrine of God based on a trinitarian starting point to be supremely helpful. It helps to illumine all of theology by adding a relational element to God's very existence. It also points Coppedge (a Weslyan) toward an understanding of providence and freedom that entails God inviting human persons to enter into genuine relations with God and each other in true freedom. In short, I think it is one of the most helpful defenses I have read of a Weslyan (that is, essentially an Arminian) understanding of providence and free will, drawing as it does on God's very nature as the ground for its theological reasoning.

I highly recommend this book as a great resource on the doctrine of the Trinity, but more than that, I think it is essential reading for an example of how Trinity matters to all of Christian life and thought, instead of being a mere appendix to the doctrine of God to set it apart from other non-Christian expositions of theism. Not only did I benefit from it, but I enjoyed reading it. And further more, I was drawn closer to God through it, by being reminded that God isn't an amorphous being up there but is instead chooses to be known as Father, Son, and Spirit: in short, God lets us know who he is, and that's a lot more intimate than focusing on what or that God is.

Glorifying God

One of the areas of tension that I see in envangelical theology today has to do with the place and role of God's glory in our understanding of God and creation. There are streams of thought, mostly reformed in orientation, that assert God's glory is God's chief purpose in end in all that he does, while there are other streams of thought that speak more freely of God's love and God's orientation toward the other. I admit that even trying to divide the camps like this is an inadequate characture, but hopefully it gives us a place to start.

I'm currently reading Alan Coppedge, The God Who Is Triune, and he has a great perspective on this, which I will quote here:

But is gloryfing God a creation purpose or a result of creation? If gloryfing God is God's own purpose, it would seem to be a self-centered purpose rather than a self-giving purpose. Does God have some innate need to be glorified and constantly have others' attention? Alternatively, if glorifying God is a natural result of God's purpose in creation, its role changes. If glory is a result of what God has done, it leads others to God's purpose for them, and it is therefore an other-oriented factor rather than a self-centered one. From the nature of the triune, self-giving God, it seems that God's glory as a result of creation is preferable. If this is the case, then God does need to be glorified, but as a result of what he has done, not as a chief end in itself. Our shift in perspective comes with a move from seeing God primarily as sovereign King to understanding him as the tripersonal God. (272–73)

Praying to the Triune God

I have been reading a great book on the Trinity of late, The God Who Is Triune, by Allan Coppedge. I'll review the book in more detail in due course, but I have been greatly enjoying it. Thinking of God as Triune always seems so fruitful and fulfilling. And this morning, as I was praying, some of these basic insights about God's Triunity were bouncing around in my head, reminding me to not just throw up a "dear Jesus" or "dear God" or "dear Father" and stumble on into my prayer, but instead to pause a second and remember what I'm doing, praying to the Father in the name of the Son in and by the Spirit. For me, it's amazing how profoundly this changes the experience of prayer. It seems that for me, recalling and praying to the Triune God means remembering who God is, not just that God is. I'm not addressing an impersonal force, some amorphous perfect being, but a personal and self-revealing God who has made himself known. What a great thing to ponder as I sit down to pray.

I Want to Believe, Mel Lawrenz

Mel Lawrenz is pastor of Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, Wisconsin (thanks to Elmbrook Church and Pastor Lawrenz for the review copy; HT: Scot McKnight for spreading word of the offer). In I Want to Believe, Lawrenz sets out to offer a guide for belief in God in our pluralistic and agnostic age. This involves some basic and careful apologetics, some study of comparative religions, and some great pastoral reflections on the nature and content of the Christian faith.

The basic premise that Lawrenz starts with is that we all have a need for God. For Lawrenz, we are "born believers. It's just simply how we're made" (8). God created us for relationship with him, and it shows in how we're made and how we experience the world. As humans, we feel mortal (and why shouldn't we, Lawrenz points out, because we are), and we look for structure and meaning in life. This doesn't mean belief is easy, but in some way it is "natural" (my word, not his). He writes, "Believeing in God is not like a scientist trapping an animal in a cage to bring back to the laboratory for further study and tests. . . . God caries us away" (17). Later, he illumines the fact that belief goes beyond understanding, and that's okay. Because belif is where "the Made and the Eternal" are conjoined, and if we come to a point where we fully understood it, then belief would be about us and what we do. But it's not; it's about God.

Throughout the rest of the book, Lawrenz does a very fine, pastoral job of working out what it means to believe, as humans, as citizens of a pluralistic world, and finally, as followers of Jesus Christ. This involves discussions of doubt (a chapter worth the price of the book), atheism, Islam, and the specifics of the Christian faith, to name a few of the topics he brings in.

Lawrenz book might be termed apologetics-lite, in a sense, but that is meant in the best possible way. He doesn't get bogged down in philosophy or argumentation but instead helpfully touches on many of these themes but moves beyond them to God and what it means to be in relationship with him. I think this great little book makes a user-friendly introduction to belief in the modern world, and I wouldn't hesitate to hand it to someone searching for faith, or even decidedly not searching for it.

Forthcoming book about Atheism

Fortress Press is coming out with the third volume in their series of books to accompany the Greer-Heard Point Counterpoint Forum at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. The new book, which is scheduled to release in October, is The Future of Atheism, and is a debate between Alister McGrath and Daniel Dennett. I haven't had a chance to seek out a recording of the debate (I know you can buy one from NOBTS), nor have I looked over the list of respondents, but this promises to be an interesting book, even if this ground has been pretty well tread in the past year or two. McGrath is a very erudite respondent to the new influx of Atheist writing, as a former atheist himself, as a credentialed scientist, and as a historical theologian. I've enjoyed listening to him talk, especially about Dawkins' new book, and look forward to delving into this discussion.

A prayer for our twin boys

Well, it's been a big week. My wife, Cindy, delivered our twin boys on Sunday, a few months earlier than we had figured. They came at 27 weeks. Both boys, Lucas James and Paul Christian, are in the NICU, and are doing quite well. That is quite early for kids to come, but they are hanging tough. Lucas was 2 pounds 10 oz and Paul was 2 pounds 4 oz. So it's been a week full of prayer, as we pray for our new sons and leave them in God's hands. And as I bowed my head to pray the simple table prayer that I grew up praying every day, and that my dad grew up praying every day, and that came at some point back there from an equivalent Norwegian prayer, the depth and power of the words rang truer than it ever had before.

We thank you, Lord,
for this our food,
for grace and life and everything good.
In Jesus name,
Amen.

I can't help but think, as I look at my new little boys: see what great things God can do.
You can check on our boys at CaringBridge.

God's Persistence

I've been away from blogging for quite a while. Life has been crazy, moving back to the North American continent, changing jobs, moving into a rental house tomorrow . . . You get the picture. But during my travels recently, I was using my time in the car to reflect on God, or more specifically on God's persistence. I've seen a lot of lists of God's attributes, organized, categorized, and discussed in a variety of ways. And I have read my share of theological treatises attempting to unveil for us God's very being by way of these attributes. And of course, each one claims to fall short, as they do, of unfolding God's majesty. It seems that the more you read, the more you appreciate the Bible's approach: stories. How better to get to know God than by what God says and does and how God interacts with people over time. This isn't to take away from the impulse to do systematic theology, and in fact, the more I read stories, and appreciate who God is, the more I am driven to revisit my own semi-systematic understanding of who God is.

One of the interesting (to me) historic discussions has to do with God's immutability. For me, about the most perceptive piece I've ever read has been Hendrikus Berkhof's Christian Faith, where he talks about the "Changeable Faithfulness" of God. This seems to capture the "historic" and personal nature of God's existence quite well. But today, my own little contribution, far from original, I'm sure, has to do with God's persistence.

In my own experience, I've found God to be persistent. God's call, conviction, and guidance persist through my on deafness, stubbornness, and failure. And it seems that this same persistence is also reflected throughout the pages of the Bible, and especially in the Old Testament, as God persistently pursues and blesses his covenant people, despite their copious failings.

These are only the beginnings of some thoughts, but seem to point to some interesting areas of reflection.

Stanley Grenz, Prayer

In this great little book, theologian Stanley Grenz takes a careful look at Prayer. He looks at what prayer is, and why we as Christians should do it. He then goes on to focus on petitionary prayer, helping us to build an understanding of God and the world where prayer really matters.

Grenz clearly has a heart for prayer. And his passion is reflected throughout these pages. He writes as someone who wants to tear down barriers to prayer and help draw us closer to God. He begins this task by strongly reminding Christians how important prayer is, and how important it should be. He starts off with the bold assertion that prayer is the biggest challenge facing the church today. Many people have relegated prayer to the back corners of our lives, maybe doing it out of habit, but no longer really believing in its power. Grenz sets out to remind us that prayer is to be cenral to who we are as Christians. This reminder includes a look at the role played in the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, and the role it has played in the life of the church ever since. He also looks at how prayer has been understood theologically, and sets out to build a theological understanding of prayer. His understanding focuses on prayer as being "the cry for the kingdom." Prayer is a time when we come into God's presence to entreat him to bring about things as he wills. We pray "according to God's will," seeking that God's desires, God's very kingdom, would be done here on earth. In essence, we are longing for the future to break into the present. And God has invited us into relationship with him in such a way that our prayer in some way releases God's power to act. Our very petitions can make a difference.

This great little book is an education in itself. Grenz looks at many rational stumbling blocks that can interfere with our prayers, and then takes an extended look at what it means to pray according to God's will. This is clearly a theology alive with God's spirit, and it calls the believer back to what should be at the heart of her or his life, prayer.