PROFESSOR J. W. Rogerson begins his book with a caveat: “A biblical scholar is not the best-qualified person to write on the subject of prayer.” He explains that he wrote it as the “result of a call by the Bishop of Sheffield” to give a series of talks, and goes on to say that he felt that there was “a need for a book about prayer by someone who is not very good at it”.

So he is a practitioner, but not a guru; a product of the academy rather than the retreat-house cir­cuit. One consequence is a freshness of approach that makes the work a welcome addition to the cascade of books that attempt to market spiritual enlightenment and answer our endless question: how to pray?

His purpose is to bring the weight of biblical scholarship — as Emeri­tus Professor of Biblical Studies in the University of Sheffield — to bear on a subject where amateurs tend to wade in all too readily and with little sense of con­text.

Rogerson situates prayer firmly in the context of the Gospels, drawing instruction on the nature of for­giveness, grace, mercy, repentance, justification, and sanctification to identify what he calls “the language of prayer” — not, notice, adoration, confession, and praise.

He addresses serious questions: for example, about the place of a scientific world-view and how we understand faith. In the world he thus identifies, where does inter­cessory prayer fit? If we are to re­solve not to make God into a tool for doing what we want, how are we to re-read the Old Testament, and also the Lord’s Prayer?

This is where the book comes into its own; for, adopting Ernst Lohmeyer’s approach, Rogerson gives us an eschatological inter­pretation, breathing fresh life into familiar words by showing how Jesus could have given this prayer to the first disciples “to equip them for the crisis that was coming upon them in his life, death and resurrec­tion”.

At the end of each chapter, there are further questions set as a resource for group or personal reflection. These recall the book’s genesis as a series of sermons on prayer, and serve to remind the reader that it is the work of a true teacher, a scholar who is accustomed to making his learning work for other people.

Lavinia Byrne is a writer and broadcaster.