Pray Like This

Werline encourages us to look at prayer in the following way: to attempt to understand how prayers are tied to particular cultural and social settings. Prayers are part of and expressions of a collection of cultural ideas that have been arranged within a system that seems coherent and obvious to those writings the biblical texts. Prayers participate in and express a persons worldview. Werline shows the ways that--though many biblical prayers are familiar to us--biblical texts and contemporary readers come from different worlds.
 The Hebrew Bible and the New Testament contain many prayers. Large volumes have been written on prayer within a single book, or within the writings of one author, like Paul, or an individual prayer, such as the Lords Prayer. Werline does not examine every prayer in the Bible or even write exhaustively on a single prayer. He has highlighted a few significant features of each prayer, and some of the prayers vividly exhibit the influence of a particular societys vision. For example, he examines the prayers of 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles because of the ways they are tightly tied to the authors views of history. The writers interpretation of history profoundly influenced significant portions of the Bible as well as the literature of early Judaism.

Pray - definition of pray by The Free Dictionary pray (prā) v. prayed, pray·ing, prays v.intr. To utter or address a prayer or prayers to a deity or an object of worship, often as an entreaty: people praying in the pews of the church; people praying for divine guidance; people praying for their loved ones. v.tr. 1. To use prayer to request (that something may happen): The congregation prayed that