In this book, Balthasar writes about contemplation that ignites prayer, which should also awaken and inform mission. Here Balthasar displays the mind of a world-class scholar, the heart of a mystic and the feet of a missiologist. In Eugene Peterson's book Pastor we read: "I still had a great deal to learn about the vocation of pastor, but I knew one thing for sure: the work of prayer was at the heart of everything" (150).
Aidan Nichols, author of A Key to Balthasar, wrote that Balthasar's goal of theology was to "encourage readers to holiness and to steady them in the praying life that flows from the theological virtues. That for him ... was the best test of whether any book was worthwhile" (115). For Balthasar, Prayer encourages the disciple to abide in the Word so that his "heart will be swept and purged to its innermost core ... burning through him and searching him out" (234, 237); it is definitely worth rereading - mainly because it is that good and because its concepts are not easily grasped - but, it's meant only for the theologically trained mind and contemplative, prayerful heart.
Balthasar is a Roman Catholic; therefore, most Protestants will be uncomfortable with his mention of the 'stations of the cross', Mass, a sinless Mary, venial and moral sin (222), penance (225), and the Apocrypha, even if they are all sparsely mentioned within the book. Regardless, Balthasar's thoughts in Prayer are ecumenical and deserve to be read outside of the Roman Catholic Church. He gives prominent and consistent place to Jesus, the Trinity, salvation by grace through faith, and the Word: in these areas he's without parallel amongst evangelicals. E.g., Jesus is "the Father's Word, his eternal and sole beloved Son whom he has given to be the price of our redemption" (199). "In beholding divine truth [encapsulated in the life, death and resurrection of the Christ] we are purified and enabled to share in justification and sanctification ... it is the gracious will of God justifying us which turns us toward him and opens our eyes to his truth" (125). "Faith offers its life to the Son" (237). "By hearing the Word, the believer genuinely participates in the life of the Word, which is a life of obedience, of cross and resurrection" (238).
For Balthasar, contemplation opens the believer to hear the Word of God (241), drawing him into intimacy and an encounter with God (268) that has an effect upon the Christian's ordinary life (286) and mission (288); it does not cause people to be "daydreamers in flight from the world, living in a fairyland divorced from reality (290)"; its very act lifts one's heart and mind to God, who is expressly seen in the Word becoming flesh, living amongst us, and being crucified and resurrected that the believer may be that `resident alien'. This contemplative Christian is like Mary, who said, 'Let it be done to me according to your Word' and therefore allows the Word to be birthed in the believer, shaping their very lives.
Though Balthasar speaks at length about the object of contemplation (155-238), V.S. Harrison's book, The Apologetic Value of Human Holiness - Von Balthasar's Christocentric Philosophical Anthropology, best summarizes these thoughts: "... God can only be contemplated through Christ: The object of contemplation is God, and God is Trinitarian life; but for us he is life in the incarnation of the Son, from which we may never withdraw our gaze in contemplating God" (43). In Prayer, you will not find four easy, practical, clearly laid out steps to becoming like Christ through prayer. Instead, Balthasar summons the believer to swim in the waters of God's Son, his Word made flesh: "Harassed by life, exhausted, we look about us for somewhere to be quiet, to be genuine, a place of refreshment. We yearn to restore our spirits in God, to simply let go in him and gain new strength to go on living. But we fail to look for him where he is waiting for us, where he is to be found: in his Son, who is his Word" (16). "The vital thing is the living encounter with the God who speaks to us in his Word, whose eyes pierce and purify us `like a flame of fire' (Rev 1:14), whose command summons us to new obedience, who each day instructs us as if until now we had learned nothing, whose power sends us out anew into the world upon our mission" (22).
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Top reviews from other countries
Tusch!
keine zwei Menschen haben jemals das gleiche Buch gelesen
Reviewed in Germany on May 22, 2023Héctor Guillermo Muñoz
My favorite book about prayer
Reviewed in Mexico on March 15, 2020Amazon Customer
Insightful. A classic on prayer.
Reviewed in Canada on May 27, 2019Miss B
Reccomend for any one who desires to know more on Prayer
Reviewed in Canada on October 4, 2019