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Volume 33 Issue 1 - May 2008

An International Journal for Pastors and Students of Theological and Religious Studies



Table of Contents [+] Expand


Book Reviews[+] Expand

Old Testament
Sidnie White Crawford and Leonard J. Greenspoon.
The Book of Esther in Modern Research.
Reviewed by Robin Gallaher Branch
Eryl W. Davies.
The Dissenting Reader: Feminist Approaches to the Hebrew Bible.
Reviewed by Robin Gallaher Branch
John Day, ed.
In Search of Pre-Exilic Israel.
Reviewed by Bálint Károly Zabán
Katharine J. Dell.
The Book of Proverbs in Social and Theological Context.
Reviewed by Jennie Barbour
William G. Dever.
Did God Have a Wife?
Reviewed by William D. Barker
New Testament
Octavian D. Baban.
On the Road Encounters in Luke-Acts.
Reviewed by Jamie Read
Richard Bauckham.
Jesus and the Eyewitnesses.
Reviewed by David Wenham
Andrew E. Bernhard.
Other Early Christian Gospels.
Reviewed by Simon Gathercole
William S. Campbell.
Paul and the Creation of Christian Identity.
Reviewed by James C. Miller
David L. Dungan.
Constantine's Bible: Politics and the Making of the New Testament.
Reviewed by Preston M. Sprinkle
Margaret Hannan.
The Nature and Demands of the Sovereign Rule of God in the Gospel of Matthew.
Reviewed by Phillip J. Long
Carl R. Holladay.
A Critical Introduction to the New Testament.
Reviewed by Lee S. Bond
 
Larry W. Hurtado.
The Earliest Christian Artifacts.
Reviewed by Rohintan Mody
Bruce J. Malina and John J. Pilch.
Social-Science Commentary on the Letters of Paul.
Reviewed by Nijay K. Gupta
Mark Reasoner.
Romans in Full Circle: A History of Interpretation.
Louisville: Reviewed by Michael Bird
Sorin Sabou.
Between Horror and Hope: Paul's Metaphorical Language of "Death" in Romans 6:1-11.
Reviewed by Nijay K. Gupta
Chris VanLandingham.
Judgment and Justification in Early Judaism and the Apostle Paul.
Reviewed by Timothy Gombis
Tommy Wasserman.
The Epistle of Jude: Its Text and Transmission.
Reviewed by P. J. Williams 89

History and Historical Theology
Sheridan Gilley and Brian Stanley, eds.
The Cambridge History of Christianity: World Christianities, c. 1815-c.1914.
Reviewed by John Coffey
Collin Hansen.
Young, Restless, Reformed.
Reviewed by Andrew David Naselli 91
Douglas A. Sweeney and Allen C. Guelzo, eds.
The New England Theology: From Jonathan Edwards to Edwards Amasa Park.
Reviewed by Oliver D. Crisp
Systematic Theology and Bioethics
Petrus J. Gräbe.
New Covenant, New Community.
Reviewed by A. T. B. McGowan
Kelly M. Kapic and Justin Taylor, eds.
Overcoming Sin and Temptation.
Reviewed by Graham Beynon
James K. A. Smith.
Who's Afraid of Postmodernism?
Reviewed by Tim Chester
Kevin J. Vanhoozer.
The Drama of Doctrine.
Reviewed by Robbie Fox Castleman
Ethics and Pastoralia
Gilbert Meilaender and William Werpehowski, eds.
The Oxford Handbook of Theological Ethics.
Reviewed by Brian Brock
H. P. Owen.
The Basis of Christian Prayer.
Reviewed by Stephen Dray
Milton Vincent.
A Gospel Primer for Christians.
Reviewed by Andrew David Naselli


The Basis of Christian Prayer. Vancouver: Regent, 2006. xx + 159 pp. $18.95.

H. P. Owen.

Stephen Dray
Ferndale Baptist Church
Southend-on-Sea, England, UK

The late H. P. Owen was Professor of Christian Doctrine at King's College, London. A prolific author, Owen died in 1966; the present, posthumous volume reflects the author's mature reflection on the subject of prayer. It is published with a helpful, sympathetic, but not uncritical introduction by Stephen N. Williams, who introduces the reader unfamiliar with Owen to the author.

Although brief in compass and in a style that is succinct and clear, the book offers a quintessential but profound analysis that reflects both the reality of the author's own prayer life and provides what might well appear an outline 'course' on the subject. Owen focuses especially on vocal prayer and, within such self-defined limits, is comprehensive in scope and wide-ranging in the sources upon which he draws. Nevertheless, attention is given to the Lord's Prayer as a model and exemplary prayer and issues such as meditation, contemplation, and mystical prayer.

Discussion is reverential and God-centred, reflecting Owen's conviction that prayer has essentially to do with that which is proper to God rather than human need. His discussion is provocative (in the positive sense) in that it encourages thought and reflection on behalf of those of us that have thought relatively little about our prayers. He addresses critical debates regarding prayer, belief, religious experience, and language and emotion in prayer.

Owen explicitly presents his material for a wide readership and avoids technicalities. At the same time, his approach is theological and philosophical in emphasis and grounded in Owen's conviction that how we think about God will determine how we pray. He emphasises, above all, that Christian prayer arises from its Trinitarian belief system.

Williams' introduction highlights those areas with which the readers of the present journal may well differ from Owen. The author was a classic Theist and in a theological world that moved away from divine impassibility gravitated in the opposite direction. This, perhaps surprisingly, was linked with a near neo-Platonism and an errantist rationalism in his exegetical method. As such his analysis can sometimes seem sub-culturally defined and, frankly, wrong. His discussion of prayer for the dead may also fail to win over the doubters.

While all this is true and while Owen's style might cause the inattentive reader to miss the deep warmth of the author's spirituality, this is a most useful little book that the reviewer expects to consult regularly. If others need to be convinced of its value, then here is an enticement:

Prayer . . . is a unique and irreplaceable part of our response to God. Most obviously it is so in the sense that in it we are responding to him in ways appropriate to his being and self-revelation. In prayer too we are responding to God in ways appropriate to our own nature as creatures who are made in his image and meant for eternal life with him. Prayer is furthermore a response to God's invitation. God desires us to pray in order that by praying we may enter into communion with him and so fulfil his purpose for us. Prayer therefore is a wholly natural activity because it is in accordance with the nature of God, the nature of human beings, and the nature of that relation that God wills to establish with us. This does not mean that prayer is always easy. . . . Yet it remains a profoundly natural act that, as such, ought to be marked increasingly by spontaneity and joy (14).