Prayer is an essential part of the daily lives of many people. Some believe it connects them with God, a cosmic force, the universe or life itself, and that it can change circumstances or bring them comfort, protection and peace. Others engage in the act of prayer as a traditional ritual from which they neither demand nor expect results. Many who pray cannot imagine living without it. For many others, however, prayer has no significance in their lives at all. Having left a practice they once knew or matured without religious intervention or instruction, the idea of praying regularly might be considered by these individuals as nothing more than a waste of time. In Amen, Gretta Vosper, United Church minister and author of the controversial bestseller With or Without God, examines these diverse positions in the light of the harsh realities of unanswered prayer, the secular critique of supernatural intervention and the need for a deep sense of ownership for the suffering in the world. With characteristic honesty, she calls the reader to submit the tradition of prayer to the test of integrity. Can we draw from it useful principles for addressing human and global needs? Or is it safe, and maybe even more effective, to get up from our knees and live out the answers we seek?
Amen: What Prayer Can Mean in a World Beyond Belief
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About the Author
GRETTA VOSPER, author of the national bestseller With or Without God, is pastor of West Hill United Church in Toronto, and founder of the Canadian Centre for Progressive Christianity. She received her master of divinity from Queen’s Theological College in 1990 and was ordained in 1992. Vosper is a widely sought-after speaker and is regularly interviewed in the national media. Visit her at progressivechristianity.ca.
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Most helpful customer reviews
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Gretta Vosper offers a clear and reasoned stance in relation to a non theistic approach to religion. A triumph of spiritual reason over superstition.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Tour de Force
Feb 13 2013
By Paul R. Snell
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Gretta Vosper is a practical, not a systematic theologian, but she is a theologian nevertheless. What this means is that she is easier to understand and writes for laypeople as well clergy. She has done alot of research for this book - for me, in some out-of-the-way and unfamiliar places. I liked that because I like to learn. The first ten or twenty pages may be an uphill climb for the average reader. It was for me, but after that it gets easier. But Gretta is a task-master - a loving and caring one. She has worked hard for this book and expects the reader to do the same. She is relentless, hard hitting, and pulls no punches. Sound like "Prayer" to you? No, this book is like none you have ever read before. Get ready for a whole new vocabulary, a foundational shift. Not ready for that, to pro-gress; i.e., to take the next rational and moral step? If you are not, that's okay. Still, the book outlines a path we may want to step-out-on in the future, if not already.
This book is aimed mostly at Liberals and Progressives. That's me. Scratch a liberal and a progressive and what do you find most of the time? A bunch of cowards. That's me too! A "semenary" professor of mine called us clergy candidates a bunch of cock-roaches. Most clergy and congregations are - like cock-roaches - survivors rather than thrivers. But Gretta is willing to take the next step by taking a firm stand, by standing out-front fully exposed. Perhaps that will make it safe or safer for others to follow.
What does it take to thrive? We must die to the old ways (of prayer, hymns, and philosophy of life, of outlook and perspective) and embrace the new. It's a matter of integrity as well as life and what is life without integrity?
For Earth's sake, for Life's sake, for Living's sake, what does all this have to with prayer?
This book is aimed mostly at Liberals and Progressives. That's me. Scratch a liberal and a progressive and what do you find most of the time? A bunch of cowards. That's me too! A "semenary" professor of mine called us clergy candidates a bunch of cock-roaches. Most clergy and congregations are - like cock-roaches - survivors rather than thrivers. But Gretta is willing to take the next step by taking a firm stand, by standing out-front fully exposed. Perhaps that will make it safe or safer for others to follow.
What does it take to thrive? We must die to the old ways (of prayer, hymns, and philosophy of life, of outlook and perspective) and embrace the new. It's a matter of integrity as well as life and what is life without integrity?
For Earth's sake, for Life's sake, for Living's sake, what does all this have to with prayer?
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Part of a study group
Feb 23 2013
By D. J. Mccready
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
I tend to disagree with the content of this book. Thus, even though I read it, it is to discuss in group and I find Vosper's theology confused.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
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