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Prayer Kindle Edition
This is perhaps the best and most comprehensive book on prayer ever written. From the persons of the Trinity through the Incarnation to the Church and the very structure of the human person, this book is a powerful synthesis of what prayer is and how to pray. The testament of a great theologian on something which is most personal and interior, contemplative prayer.
In this modern classic, von Balthasar illumines the nature and practice of contemplative prayer in explicit and vital connection with the mysteries of Christian revelation. His extraordinary flair for drawing spiritual implications from the most profound theological insights is brilliantly displayed on so many of its pages. This is a book on prayer that stimulates our yearning for God as it points us toward ever-deepening and authentic encounters with Him.
- Margaret M. Turek, S.T.D., Associate Professor of Systematic Theology, St. Patrick's Seminary and University
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherIgnatius Press
- Publication dateJune 12, 2012
- File size536 KB
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About the Author
Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905–1988) was a Swiss theologian widely regarded as one of the greatest theologians and spiritual writers of modern times. Named a cardinal by Pope John Paul II, he died shortly before being formally inducted into the College of Cardinals. He wrote over one hundred books, including Prayer, Heart of the World, Mary for Today, Love Alone Is Credible, Mysterium Paschale and his major multi-volume theological works: The Glory of the Lord, Theo-Drama and Theo-Logic.
Product details
- ASIN : B008EYGTG8
- Publisher : Ignatius Press; First edition (June 12, 2012)
- Publication date : June 12, 2012
- Language : English
- File size : 536 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 320 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #182,664 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #82 in Spiritual Devotionals
- #203 in Christian Prayer (Kindle Store)
- #235 in Spiritual Meditations (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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Customers find the writing style savored and remarkably deep. They also say the book is written with grace and an almost poetic style. Opinions are mixed on readability, with some finding it graceful and easy to read, while others say it's difficult.
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Customers find the writing style lucid, thorough, and excellent in depth. They also say the author displays the mind of a world-class scholar and the heart of mstic. Readers also mention that the book provides a solid Biblical foundation for prayer and the practice.
"...Here Balthasar displays the mind of a world-class scholar, the heart of a mystic and the feet of a missiologist...." Read more
"...Written in the spirit of prayer, this spiritual masterpiece can be deeply nourishing when we take in a small portion at a time and ponder it deeply..." Read more
"...Yet when taken incrementally becomes a devotional that provides a solid Biblical foundation for prayer and the practice thereof...." Read more
"Von Balthasar never fails to satisfy. Here's a lucid, thorough account of contemplative prayer that complements Thomas Merton's Contemplative Prayer..." Read more
Customers find the book remarkably deep and real food for the soul on contemplation.
"...It is, however, remarkably deep. If you really want to grasp von Balthasar's writing here, you'll need to be ready to read, re-read, and read again...." Read more
"...What we find here is a deep and comprehensive exposition of the full contours of Christian prayer that is characteristically trinitarian, rooted in..." Read more
"Deep. Not easy read but so worth it." Read more
"Deep and real food for the soul on contemplation...." Read more
Customers have mixed opinions about the readability of the book. Some find it written with grace and an almost poetic style, while others say it's not easy to read and a typical slow read.
"It very readable but not where it makes the subject less important...." Read more
"...That being said, it is a typically slow read, with each paragraph requiring that I stop and ponder what he's said, and what point he's really..." Read more
"...this book could easily be used for a course in theology it is written with such grace and an almost poetic style that can be read by all...." Read more
"A must read on prayer from a Christian perspective. This translation is very readable and binding is of good quality." Read more
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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).
I am roughly only a third of the way through. I am relatively new to von Balthasar, and this is the most poetic and beautiful text I've read (so far) from him. That being said, it is a typically slow read, with each paragraph requiring that I stop and ponder what he's said, and what point he's really getting at. Von Balthasar's focus is not on the "how to," but on the underlying dynamics and principles contemplative prayer---the why and the who (which is us of course, but also each person of the Trinity, as well as the Church). His treatment of "how" appears primarily focused on the underlying, interior attitudes. My sense is that he is most heavily influenced by the Carmelite traditions, notably Teresa and John, but he also addresses wider circles, such as Ignatius. However, these are not recitations of their various teachings, but deeply processed synthesis of them.
Later sections appear to consider the what---the object---which is the Word of God, both Christ and Sacred Scripture, as well as the inherent tensions that underlie contemplative prayer. This later part is not the typical Mary v. Martha; rather, it appears to deal with existential and eschatalogical tensions. I look forward to both of these with great interest.
'Prayer' is a remarkable book. It's not an easy read, although I wouldn't want to give the impression that it's a horribly technical and academic book; it's not. It is, however, remarkably deep. If you really want to grasp von Balthasar's writing here, you'll need to be ready to read, re-read, and read again. About every couple of pages I found myself needing to set aside the book to allow some time to reflect on what he'd written. And every dozen or so pages I put the book away for a spell because I so wanted to pray - which was von Balthasar's aim in writing the book in the first place. In the introduction he writes that the book "offers, not fully fashioned meditations, but points for meditation, above all in connection with passages from the New Testament. They are designed simply to provide stimuli, perspectives and possible starting points for personal and individual contemplation." And in this he is very successful, perhaps in part because he paints such a compelling vision of the beauty of God and of the experience of prayer - and such a broad, cosmic vision at that.
One warning - reading this book will make many (even most) other books on prayer and the Christian life seem rather anemic. You may find yourself living with this text for some time to come, not wanting or needing to buy anything more until you've fully digested it. Perhaps Amazon should be warned: selling this book to you could hurt their bottom line for a while ...!
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The only reason I'm putting 4 stars is that it is a bit too lengthy (and some sections may give the impression of dragging a bit too long). However, each and every patient reader will most assuredly find the effort put into the reading to be a very rewarding experience.
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Recomendo a todos os cristãos.
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