J Gerald Janzen

When Prayer Takes Place: Forays Into a Biblical World J Gerald Janzen

Where in the world was Jesus when he prayed? Where is any one of us when we pray? Since we are embodied creatures, our prayer location can be mapped onto space-time coordinates. Since we are social creatures, our prayers are also situated within our social locations. But do these sets of coordinates exhaustively identify the place that prayer takes when truly entered into? Conversely, can either set totally prevent prayer from taking place there? These questions lie at the intersection of resolutely religious vis-à-vis resolutely secular understandings of existence. The studies in this volume explore dimensions of these issues traced in selected texts from both parts of the Christian Bible.