Dimensions of Prayer: Cultivating a Relationship with God

Writing out of a Quaker background, the late Douglas Steere has offered excellent advice on prayer. Ostensibly for the beginner, this newly revised edition will be welcome and useful to all Christians. Steere has solid theology and is obviously a master of his material. He draws on a wide variety of authors and traditions and presents it all in a unified and simple way, easy to read and lucidly clear. He deals with the widest variety of topics: what prayer is, why we pray, the God-centered nature of prayer, meditation, oral prayer, intercessory prayer, congregational prayer, distractions, autosuggestion, habit and routine, to name but a few, and manages to cast new light and insight on each. A less fortunate feature of his style is his constant citing of other authors, some quotations magnificent finds, some barely apposite. It makes the text read at times like a pile of index cards. He may do it to undergird his own insights with external authority, but he himself speaks with sufficient obvious authority and reads best when he writes simply and without citations what is in his own heart and mind.

This is a wonderful book. I LOVE it. It is divided into short sections that are rich and deep. I read it before praying each morning. I am sure i will read it again and again, and I'm buying three copies for friends. (I am a Quaker, like Steere).