What are some good resources on improving prayers?
Improving your conversation with God? practice, practice, practice. More to the point, my first suggestion to anyone is Richard Foster's Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home. After that, I'd ask you what sort of prayer are you called to - petitionary, intercessory, praise, contemplative, liturgical, ..
I second the suggestion to Practice Practice Practice.
Another book I like from Logos is this:
https://www.logos.com/product/570/handbook-to-prayer
Like the Nike slogan, "Just Do It."
Personally my prayer journey has been most affected by the literary work of Brother Lawrence in a quest to pray without ceasing, to be in an actual state of existence in prayer.
I have purchased and read so many copies of this book and always will. https://www.logos.com/product/37120/the-practice-of-the-presence-of-god-the-best-rule-of-holy-life
I have read Foster's book and it is good but prefatory and brief. I like his point of view. I am trying to figure out how to be more decisive and powerful in my prayer life. What I am trying to learn is how to be more ideal and triumphant in my prayer. I also want a source on the Spirit's power in prayer.
Seems that the resource you may be seeking is more along the lines of Spiritual Formation.
You already addressed that here...
https://community.logos.com/forums/t/205744.aspx
https://community.logos.com/forums/t/205840.aspx
https://community.logos.com/forums/t/205746.aspx
And maybe elsewhere.
What exactly are you looking for?
I am trying to understand prayer in a theological perspective. What are some good books?
It may be me who is wrong, but I personally think that
improving prayers?
and
I am trying to understand prayer in a theological perspective.
are two fundamentally different things. "Improving prayers" sounds very practical, day-to-day, and actually - in my understanding - asks more for training, living it out, growing over time and practice. Of course, this has to do with which kind of prayers you are thinking of - nevertheless, I think that a book or a hundred maybe won't really help, taking an hour to pray every day and keeping a journal may help - possibly over several years time. It actually is a part of spiritual growth, may even be called a spiritual discipline.
"Understanding prayer", especially "in a theological perspective", sounds theoretical, asks for philosophical worldviews and making sense how prayer as a concept (however defined) can be fit into the structure of such constructs. It is the thing one can discuss about, and a Logos search in systematic theologies, encyclopedias and the subject of monograph resources (and possibly Factbook as well) will probably give many many articles, chapters and books to study, with links to many more. I personally would think there's much more than could fit into a thirty page essay - but wouldn't expect such a study to substantially improve the personal prayer life of the one conducting or reading it.
I offer you my bibliography on prayer from when I used to teach periodic workshops on prayer in 2004-2005. I've added links to the ones that are available in Logos. (Clearly Logos needs more classic books on prayer. [:)]) Please note the highlighted line, though.
A Short Bibliography on Prayer
A caution about any list of books on prayer: “Why do I always want to read about the spiritual life and not really live it?” (Henri Nouwen, The Genesee Diary, June 7)
Those marked with * are particularly good for people who are new to deepening their prayer life.
* Baillie, John. A Diary of Private Prayer. New York: Fireside/Simon & Schuster, 1977. A devotional classic. Morning and evening prayers for every day through a month. Deeply personal and meditative. Dr. Baillie was a teacher, lecturer, and preacher. He died in 1960.
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Life Together. New York: HarperCollins, 1954. [not the same edition, but Logos has this and this] A book on Christian fellowship which includes a good treatment of corporate prayer.
* Brother Lawrence. The Practice of the Presence of God. Springdale, PA: Whitaker House, 1982. A classic, for many years second only to the Bible in popularity as devotional reading. Brother Lawrence was a humble cook, a lay brother in the Carmelite order in the 17th century. He learned to spend time in communion with God as he washed pots.
Celtic Daily Prayer: Prayers and Readings from the Northumbrian Community. New York: HarperCollins, 2002. A structured way of setting aside time for morning and evening prayer, with liturgy and daily readings.
* Foster, Richard J. Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home. New York: HarperCollins, 1992. Foster describes 21 different types of prayer, including the prayer of examen, the prayer of tears, the prayer of rest, unceasing prayer, the prayer of the heart, meditative prayer, contemplative prayer, intercessory prayer, healing prayer, radical prayer, etc.
Green, Thomas H., S.J. When the Well Runs Dry: Prayer Beyond the Beginnings. Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press, 1998. Green is a Jesuit priest, a prolific spiritual writer, a professor of philosophy and pastoral theology, and a spiritual director. This book deals with how to proceed through difficult periods when prayer does not seem to flow easily.
* Griffin, Emilie. Doors Into Prayer. Brewster, MA: Paraclete Press, 2001. Emilie is a member of Richard Foster’s Renovaré team, and author of several books on spirituality. She understands the pressures that most of us face in our busy lives. In spite of a life in the fast-paced business world she learned how to find space for prayer. This little book is a lovely invitation to simply enter into prayer.
Guenther, Margaret. The Practice of Prayer. Cambridge, MA: Cowley Publications, 1998. Practical manual on prayer by an Episcopal priest, spiritual director, retreat leader, and retired professor of ascetical theology.
* Guyon, Madame. Experiencing God Through Prayer. Springdale, PA: Whitaker House, 1984. A classic on experiencing fellowship with God through prayer.
Herbert, George. The Temple. In The Complete English Works. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995. [not the same edition but Logos has this] Herbert’s poetry is profoundly prayerful. See especially the poem “Prayer (i)” which consists of a sequence of 28 metaphors for prayer.
* Houston, James. Prayer: The Transforming Friendship. Republished as The Transforming Power of Prayer. Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1996. James Houston was the founding principal of Regent College and a pioneer of spiritual theology in Protestant circles. In this book, he aims to help us get beyond viewing prayer as a rigorous discipline or a required spiritual exercise to see prayer as keeping company with God. He doesn’t like the new title that NavPress gave the book, because its emphasis on the power of prayer is exactly the opposite of what the book is about.
* Lewis, C. S. Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1964. The inimitable Lewis addresses various topics about prayer in the form of letters to a friend.
Merton, Thomas. New Seeds of Contemplation. New York: New Directions, 1961. Merton was a Trappist monk. A classic on contemplative prayer, better known than his shorter work Contemplative Prayer.
Nouwen, Henri. The Genesee Diary. New York: Image/Doubleday, 1976. Nouwen was the beloved Catholic priest who towards the end of his life lived and worked among the mentally disabled in the L’Arche-Daybreak Community in Toronto. He is the author of many books on spirituality. This is his diary from Nouwen’s seven-month stay in a Trappist monastery.
* Nouwen, Henri. The Way of the Heart. New York: Ballantine, 1981. Wisdom from the desert fathers on silence, solitude, and prayer, for living in these times of turmoil.
Palmer, Earl. Prayer Between Friends. Tarrytown, NY: Revell, 1991. Prayer as the language of friendship with God. Earl Palmer is the senior pastor of University Presbyterian Church in Seattle. (And of course the letters in Presbyterian can be rearranged to spell “best in prayer” J )
Peace, Richard. Meditative Prayer: Entering God’s Presence. A Spiritual Formation Study Guide. Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1998. Richard Peace is professor of spiritual formation at Fuller Theological Seminary. Others in this study guide series by him are also relevant, such as Contemplatve Bible Reading.
* Peterson, Eugene. Answering God: The Psalms as Tools for Prayer. New York: HarperCollins, 1989. Peterson is best known as author of The Message, and he also taught spiritual theology at Regent College. For centuries, the Psalter was the prayer book of the Church. Peterson seeks to recover the Psalms for us as essential tools in our prayer life, to counter the “appalling adolescence of so much American spirituality.”
* Postema, Don. Space for God: Study and Practice of Spirituality and Prayer. Grand Rapids, MI: CRC Publications, 1997. Devotional reflections combined with Scripture, art, poetry, quotes, and exercises to create a space for prayer.
Tugwell, Simon. Prayer: Living with God. Springfield, IL.: Templegate Publishers, 1975. A good general book on prayer by a British Dominican.
Many years ago I attended a seminar hosted my my then church on prayer.
It was a new (then) seminar that was going around the country (multi-denominational) called "Change the World School of Prayer".
Logos has several resources by one of the originators of that series.
The catch phrase was "The hour that changed the world".
They tried to encourage and teach and train up the christian on how to have a one-on-one conversation with God. When broken up into 5 minute blocks you can easily find yourself spending an hour (the goal) or more in prayer each day.
They are still around under the name "Every home for Christ". Their main thrust is world evangelism.
Check out some of his stuff here on Logos. https://www.logos.com/search?query=dick%20eastman&sortBy=Relevance&limit=60&page=1&ownership=all&geographicAvailability=availableToMe
Here's his bio from the Logos product page.
Dick Eastman is international president of Every Home for Christ, a global evangelism ministry that has planted over 2.3 billion gospel messages home by home in 205 nations. His books on prayer, evangelism, and Christian growth have sold more than 2.5 million copies worldwide.
Dick also serves as president of America's National Prayer Committee. He is the originator of the Change the World School of Prayer that has taught prayer principles to more than two million Christians worldwide.
Eastman has written more than a dozen books, including The Hour That Changes the World, with more than 500,000 copies in print. He lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with his wife, Dee.
There are youtube videos you can watch also.
Also check out E.M. Bounds material on prayer. https://www.logos.com/product/198720/complete-works-of-e-m-bounds-on-prayer-eight-volumes
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