Further Reading
Further Reading
Good books on prayer magnify God and make you want to pray more than you do. Here is a selection of books that to our minds pass this test with flying colors and are all worth rereading from time to time.
BEGINNER READING
Bunyan, John. Prayer. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth. The sense of God’s greatness and graciousness that Bunyan communicates across more than three centuries simultaneously knocks you down, lifts you up and urges you into active praying.
Kreeft, Peter. Prayer: The Great Conversation. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1991. Kreeft’s racy, down-to-earth dialogues yield clarity and vision and awaken desire to pray.
Hallesby, O. Prayer. Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1975. An invitation to pray as plain and simple as it is profound and searching. This book is a real classic.
ADVANCED READING
Bloesch, Donald. The Struggle of Prayer. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1980. Drawing mainly on Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Richard Sibbes (Puritan) and P. T. Forsyth, Bloesch offer a systematic theologian’s survey that is very mind-clearing at a deep level.
Calvin, John. Institutes of the Christian Religion, 3.20. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1960. A classic minitreatise on the proper mindset for praying and the Lord’s Prayer as a pattern for so doing.
Forsyth, P. T. The Soul of Prayer. Vancouver, B.C.: Regent College Publishing, 1995. While couched in the rhetoric of a century ago, Forsyth’s grip on the theological realities of coming to God is masterful and inspiring. Lewis, C. S. Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer. London: Geoffrey Bles, 1964.
———. Reflections on the Psalms. London: Fontana, 1961. A well-read, independent-minded, humble-hearted man of prayer shares a wide range of helpful insights.
REFRESHER READING
(For all anywhere on the path of prayer.)
Bennett, Arthur. The Valley of Vision. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth. A distillation of Puritan petitions. Wonderfully heartwarming.
Boa, Kenneth. Face to Face: Praying the Scriptures for Intimate Worship. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1997.
———. Handbook to Prayer: Praying Scripture Back to God. Atlanta: Trinity House, 1993. Devotionally, Boa’s books are very enriching.
Chapell, Bryan. Praying Backwards. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2005. An enlivening exploration of praying in the name of Jesus.
Crabb, Larry. The PAPA Prayer. Brentwood Tenn.: Integrity, 2006. A ruthless detection of unrecognized, life-draining self-centeredness in prayer.
Jones, Timothy. The Art of Prayer. Colorado Springs: Waterbrook, 2005. A most effective allurement into intimacy with God.
Luther, Martin. A Simple Way to Pray. Edited by Archie Parrish. 4th ed. Marietta Ga.: Serve International, 2005.
Moore, T. M. God’s Prayer Program. Tain, U.K.: Christian Focus, 2005. A highway into regular use of the psalms in one’s personal prayer life.
———. The Psalms for Prayer. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002.