Praying with Paul

Tom Smail

From: The Church Times - 4 January 2008

The ambition of this book is inversely proportional to its length. In a mere 111 pages, the author seeks to address a problem that has haunted much of Western spirituality, one that he nicely defines by posing a dichotomy between two men who died in the same year: Karl Barth, the cool, unemotional theologian, and Thomas Merton, the mystic.

For Smail, these men typify the division between theology and spirituality which has done so much damage to both. It has resulted in a theology that fails to touch the heart, and a self-indulgent spirituality that seeks self-fulfilment rather than deeper knowledge of the God revealed in Jesus. The author argues that it is in the writings of Paul that we can find reintegration of our thinking and our praying.

The result is a beautiful work of spirituality, the distilled wisdom of countless hours spent with God and with those seeking him more deeply. The insights drip from every page - which means that, though highly readable, this is not a book to rush. There is sensitive reflection on prayer as an activity that arises from the life of the Trinity; and the author's Charismatic background is in evidence in his pondering on the Spirit, who "takes the perfect prayer of the Son and prays it in the heart of his people".

The book is honest about the problems and challenges of prayer, and is careful to avoid offering glib or over-tidy answers to profound spiritual problems. The author's emphasis on the use of silence in prayer is another strength; he gives apt warnings of the importance of a silence that arises from reflection on the Word, rather than one that is an end in itself.
The book is rooted in the real world, with strong practical applications, and a profound under-standing of the importance of prayer in daily living.

 Each chapter contains enough insights and challenges to keep a house-group busy for weeks; and there is precious material here for preachers, spiritual directors, and anyone wishing to grow in their understanding of prayer and the scriptures. This is the kind of book you can write only after a whole lifetime of praying, and for that alone it is gold-dust.

Reviewed by Philip North - Priest Administrator of the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham.

From: The Church of England Newspaper – 13 July 07

What do we do when we pray to God? Do we come to him with a shopping list of demands? Are those prayers always answered? In this short book Tom Smail, who was vice-principal at St John’s College Nottingham, until his retirement, looks at the question of prayer from the perspective of the writings of Paul.

Acknowledging that Paul presents a challenge to many readers, he selects some key writings from the Apostle on the subject, and draws his conclusions from those. Rather than being a verse-by-verse examination, it rather surveys the land and picks out the key principles.

So while the shopping list approach is wrong, he surmises from Philippians that Paul advocates an approach of bringing our requests to God in prayer, but acknowledging that God is in charge, and his perspective may be different to ours. So our attitude should be, “What I am asking you is what I see as best for this person or situation, but you are the Lord and, in the very act of asking, I am saying, ‘Over to you’.”

The lessons he draws are profound and will be of immense help to any reader who wants to deepen their prayer life.

Reviewed by Judy West.

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