Praying Dangerously

Readers of the first edition (published in 2001) were enthusiastic in their praise, calling it a brave and useful book. Prayer groups and church congregations in around the U.S. have used it for study, and it has been translated into Dutch, German and French. The message of the book is more relevant now than it was 10 years ago. The world has changed radically since 2001. As more people worldwide candidly admit to their reliance on prayer, the number of books on the subject has dramatically increased each year. War, economic instability, environmental and weather-related disasters--many factors draw us inward or back to our churches. In prayer groups and retreats of all kinds we are looking for comfort and consolation, for spiritual direction, or for answers to the eternal questions that have always challenged humanity. Praying Dangerously instructs us that we can grow up spiritually, leaving behind a childish relationship to prayer as a superstitious ritual or mere plea for favors. It encourages readers to recognize the difference between prayer that asks only for reassurance, and prayer that asks for God and stands for transformation. The author invites us to assume greater responsibility for our inner lives by choosing the "not-knowing," the insecurity, the difficult circumstances as potential blessings and means of purification and inspiration. We can cease being "victims" of God's Will, while at the same time embracing genuine surrender and reliance on the irrefutable power of love. This 10th anniversary edition is fully revised, with several completely new chapters including: "The High Cost of Forgiveness"--a subject that challenges everyone, and "Praying on the Subway," about how our travels and other activities in public places can provide us with a constant impetus for blessing others. Praying Dangerously draws from many sources and many traditions, from the Orthodox Christian classic The Philokalia, to the writings of ancient Sufi saints Rabi'a, Rumi and Abil-Kheir to contemporary treatments of prayer by Thomas Merton, Thomas Keating and others. Topics include: the prayer of transformation; building a life of prayer; lessons in prayer from people who prayed "dangerously," and the use of prayer-writing as a means of building and nourishing the inner life. This dynamic approach expands the possibilities of prayer, invites a renewal of the inner life, and inspires us to abandon superficial, safe notions of prayer in favor of the Real.