Encouraging intentional praying

John Woods reviews Prayerfulness by Peter Adam.

Peter Adam is a distinguished scholar, whose writings take a rich deep dive into 2,000 years of Christian theology and spirituality. This same rich depth is on display in this beautifully produced hardback volume. Adam helps readers to think carefully about what it means to develop prayerfulness.

His recipe for prayerfulness involves understanding what prayer is, using the rich resources we have available in the prayers that are embedded in the Bible, and making use of some of the excellent set prayers that can be found in places like the Book of Common Prayer. The idea suggested here is that we learn to use these prayers as a launchpad for praying our own prayers and learn the discipline of putting our own prayers into words.