Proclaimer Blog
EMA Books (1)
For the next few days, we want to replay the EMA stage recommendations in terms of books, particularly for those who were not able to make it. These are not all the books our Book Panel liked – that would be too long a list – but instead those we wanted to particularly identify as being worthy of some reading time. In each case, there is a very brief review, but the main purpose of the posts is to highlight the titles.
Tim Keller’s book on prayer (not quite his latest, that’s on preaching), is perhaps his best book. There is an honesty about the struggle that prayer sometimes is, together with a deep appreciation of Scripture (something some critics have said is absent from other titles). It makes this a strong help. In one sense, there is nothing brand new. Keller is bringing wisdom from other writers together and applying it to himself (and to his readers). You could read a dozen or so books on prayer and get the same. But the sifting and ordering that Keller has done I found remarkably useful. There is a very strong theme of getting the balance right in prayer. Prayer is an intimate communion with the living God(something recent titles have done well to stress) but this aspect of prayer must not be overstated at the expense of the nature of prayer in terms of the children of the Father casting themselves on God for their daily bread. A good read (by which I mean a genuinely helpful read), and would make a great gift to others.