Book Review: Analyzing Prayer: Theological and Philosophical Essays

Abstract

individual and beyond this life. Next, seminary professor J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu examines spiritual formation from an African perspective in the Pentecostal/ charismatic tradition. Contrasting Enlightenment-shaped churches, he highlights the mainstream role the Holy Spirit plays in the ecclesial identity of African Christians. In this view, a lack of flourishing is the result of supernatural evil forces at work, and the Spirit is integral for the interventionist ministries of healing and deliverance. Finally, NT professor HaYoung Son explores the spiritually formative properties of failure and endurance. In the Korean culture, failure is difficult to confront, and honor-shame dynamics foster a competitive environment requiring endurance to save face. Son juxtaposes these dynamics with a study of Peter’s failures, ultimately demonstrating failure’s blessing: occurring under the Lord’s care, it invites perseverance in His strength. Failure’s inevitability makes this instructive for believers in every cultural setting. This marvelous collection of voices will connect with pastors, scholars, and thoughtful learners seeking to expand their understanding and approach to spiritual formation. By extension this will benefit classrooms and congregations alike. The conversations initiated by this volume brilliantly inject diverse perspectives into the spiritual formation conversation, while also exacting important critiques of the embedded grooves that the church—and the western church especially—has fallen into regarding the nature of spiritual formation. A significant contribution this volume makes is the repeated invitation to view the “both-ands” crucial in our approaches to spiritual formation: it’s about both head and heart, information and transformation, individual and community, Pentecostal and Anglican, African and Taiwanese voices, and, and, and... One “drawback” is that readers may be left wanting more: more examples from non-Western cultures, and more female voices, and more attention to embodied approaches to formation. Any book that whets the appetite for more is accomplishing something important. This one will inspire future such collaboration within the global body of Christ toward a fuller understanding of spiritual formation.