Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Exercises in Prayerful Theology

by Telford Work

Overview

Karl Barth's legendary image of preaching with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other now has a matching image for praying. In Ain't Too Proud to Beg Telford Work encourages praying with a social documentary in one hand and the Lord's Prayer in the other. The result is neither a commentary on the Lord's Prayer nor a theology of prayer. Instead it is an exercise book that uses prayer to strengthen our theological muscles.

Work proposes that we take whatever is happening in our world — a political election or the latest war will do — and set the Lord's Prayer in the middle of it. Let that prayer shed light on the scene and expose what matters. Then pray it. Then look again and see how the prayer is a response to what matters. These three movements give structure to the book as a whole and to each chapter within it. Prayed this way, the Lord's Prayer is always new and never quite the same.

Ecumenical, evangelical, postmodern, and irenic in tone, Ain't Too Proud to Beg ends not with a neat scholarly wrap-up but with an open-ended "Amen" — three sparkling, joyful sermons — a fitting ending to Work's provocative exploration of prayer as a theological process.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802803931
Publisher:	Eerdmans, William B. Publishing Company
Publication date:	07/01/2007
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	278
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.74(d)

About the Author

Telford Work is associate professor of theology at WestmontCollege, Santa Barbara, California.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments     ix
Introduction: When You Pray...     xi
The First Tablet
The Character of God     3
God Made Strange     3
"Our Father in Heaven"     15
The Reputation of God     27
Blasphemed among the Nations     27
A Glimpse of Something Extraordinary     31
"Let Your Name Be Held Holy"     32
The Reign of God     47
Trivial Pursuits, Lost Causes, and Utopian Fantasies     47
Divided Loyalties? American Patriotism and Christian Identity     53
"Your Kingdom Come"     64
The Presence of God     79
Will the Son of Man Find Faith on Earth When He Comes?     79
"Your Will Be Done on Earth as It Is in Heaven"     103
Interlude     111
The Second Tablet
The Providence of God     117
The Culture of Money     117
"Give Us Today Our Daily Bread"     130
The Mercy of God     144
The Soulless World of Tom Wolfe     144
"Forgive Us...as We Forgive"     152
The Victory of God     172
Woe, Woe, Woe     172
"Do Not Lead Us into Temptation, Rather Deliver Us from the Evil One"     188
Epilogue: Amen     206
Bible Stories You Didn't Outgrow: Jonah     206
Generosity under Pressure; or, How to Win in November No Matter What     213
You Can Say That Again     225
Bibliography     235
Subject Index     241
Scripture Index     246