Kneeling with Giants: Learning to Pray with History’s Best Teachers
Digital Verbum Edition
Overview
Do you sometimes find yourself searching for a way to approach God or wondering how to get out of a devotional slump? Do you long for spiritual guides you can trust?
This guide to prayer is rooted in centuries of Christian tradition. In each chapter you’ll meet a figure from church history, such as St. Benedict, Martin Luther, John Calvin, St. Ignatius, Teresa of Ávila and Andrew Murray. You’ll learn how each of these spiritual giants uniquely connected to God through prayer.
Each chapter provides an opportunity to practice a different method for prayer, including the divine office, the Lord’s Prayer, the Jesus Prayer, healing prayer and meditation on the Psalms. In the process your own prayer practice will be refreshed and renewed.
Journey into church history and enliven each day of your prayer life.
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- Introduces a figure from church history in each chapter.
- Shows how each of these spiritual giants uniquely connected to God through prayer.
- Provides an opportunity to practice a different method for prayer.
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part One: What Language Shall I Borrow?
- 1. Praying with St. Benedict: The Divine Office
- 2. Praying with Martin Luther: The Lord’s Prayer
- 3. Praying with the Pilgrim: The Jesus Prayer
- Part Two: Praying with Scripture
- 4. Praying with John Calvin: Studious Meditation on the Psalms
- 5. Praying with Ignatius of Loyola: The Prayer of the Senses
- Part Three: Conversations, Light and Dark
- 6. Praying with St. Teresa of Ávila: Recollection of the Presence of God
- 7. Praying with the Puritans: Meditation in Writing
- 8. Praying with The Cloud of Unknowing: Contemplation in the Dark
- Part Four: Asking God for Help
- 9. Praying with Agnes Sanford: The Healing Light
- 10. Praying with Andrew Murray: The Ministry of Intercession
- Benediction
- Appendix 1: Using This Book in Small Groups and Church Classes
- Appendix 2: Putting Prayer into Practice
- Notes
Here is a book that invites each of us to learn how to pray. Not only is Gary Hansen a superb scholar and historical theologian, he also writes with a personal warmth and earnestness that makes his readers feel safe and encouraged as they trace with him the journeys of a company of remarkable men and women from Christian history. The mark of each was that they cared deeply about prayer, and because of that we are enriched as we learn from them. Hansen also invites us to experience our own life of prayer as we learn from this rare community of brothers and sisters--people like St. Benedict, Martin Luther, Ignatius of Loyola, St. Teresa of Ávila and Andrew Murray. I was personally challenged and encouraged in each chapter, and I recommend this book enthusiastically.
—Rev. Earl F. Palmer, Earl Palmer Ministries
Prayer is one of those areas where one model or one mentor just isn’t enough. I’ve never been good at prayer, and mostly blamed my lack of discipline. But Kneeling with Giants is changing all that as I am now experimenting with many more ways to pray--and doing so under the tutelage of some of God’s great heroes of faith. Gary Hansen has provided us with a very practical guide drawn from these saints’ actual prayer practices. He also supplies wonderful materials at every turn to make the journey rich and expansive. This is a unique and wonderful resource!
—Stephen Hayner, president, Columbia Theological Seminary
By seeing prayer through some of church history’s most valuable mentors, this book leads us into practices that are both deep and accessible. It is a book that informs, invites and nourishes our hunger for God. Feast in it!
—Mark Labberton, author of The Dangerous Act of Worship