Philip Yancey - Book Review

Philip Yancey
‘PRAYER – Does it make any difference?’ (Hodder & Stoughton, 2006)

What did I expect coming to this book?

1. That it would be well written. Yancey isn’t one of the most popular Christian authors writing today for nothing – the two previous books of his I’d read (‘The Bible Jesus Read’ & ‘What’s So Amazing About Grace’) were skilfully written, engaging and easy to read. He has the particular ability to articulate the frustrations and angst felt by many Christians in the West today – he has the knack of expressing the nagging doubts Christians often have but can’t quite put their finger on.

2. A bit ‘touchy feely’. I don’t mean that in particularly negative sense. Yancey is a very sympathetic writer who uses lots of real live stories. His style resonates with our more ‘feelings’ culture which is why he connects with so many people. He tends not to be strongly didactic (i.e. he won’t say ‘this is just the way it is so like it or lump it’) but is very persuasive. One final point is that inevitably his books need a bit of translation from ‘American’ into ‘English’. Otherwise some of his stories can come across as a bit ‘cheesy’. Likewise some of the issues he wrestles with are obviously more relevant to an American cultural setting.

3. A bit ‘wet’ theologically. Better clarify this quickly – it’s not that Yancey is a raving liberal but sometimes you feel that he ends up with a kind of stalemate between pastoral problems and the Bible. That is, he can get so immersed in the difficulties of a pastoral situation that the clear cut truths of the Bible never seem to be quite enough. He also has the tendency (which seems to be increasingly common among certain Christian writers) to dip into and quote favourably from a broad range of ‘spirituality’ – from Rabbis to Catholic priests. While the quotes themselves are usually not contentious I worry that this sends out confusing messages to readers and may give credence to some of these source’s less Biblical views.

Were my expectations realized?
1. Well written – yes. This is a well researched and thorough book at over 300 pages. It’s loaded with lots of quotes and provides a fairly comprehensive overview of the main issues surrounding prayer.
2. Touch feely – a bit but not overly so. There are ‘drop in’ boxes interspersed throughout the book with extracts of letters, poems & testimonies – but if these don’t excite you then they are easily skipped over.
3. A bit ‘wet’ – on occasions but generally very good. Yancey faces most of the issues head on and by and large doesn’t avoid the unglamorous answers. It certainly isn’t a light-weight pop-paperback or a 'quick-fix to your prayer problems' type book.

How does he tackle the subject?
In 5 parts.

Part 1: Here he highlights well some of the key questions we have about prayer. E.g. the sense of discrepancy between our personal experience of prayer and the stories we often hear about great ‘prayer warriors’ – the type of people who got up at 4am and prayed for 2 hours before breakfast etc. Whereas often if we muster 10 mins we feel we’ve done well. His main reflection in this section is how Prayer allows us to get a right perspective on our lives.

Part 2: Unravelling the Mysteries
Does God care about the small details of our lives (e.g. when we pray about our lost car keys) and if so how do we reconcile that with Tsunamis taking place? The sense that our prayers so often are concerned with either ‘Trouble or Trivia’. Questions such as: Does it make a difference how many people pray for me – if I only have one praying friend am I less likely to be cured than someone with a 100? He raises the issue of our ‘polite prayers’ in contrast to the raw honesty of the psalmists for example. Big theme in this part is of God giving away power - that prayer is not asking God to absolve us of our responsibilities

Looks in this section at the issue of ‘Does Prayer Change God’. That is, can a changeless God be influenced by prayer. This was the main point where I wondered if a bit of ‘wetness’ might appear and we might find ourselves shaking hands with Open Theism. Yancey ends up with a bit of a fudge here concluding that while the ultimate outcomes of the universe are set by God we have some leeway to improvise the details of how those are arrived at. This of course leaves the problem that such is the interconnectability of all things how could God control one thing but not the others.

Part 3 – Language of Prayer
Here the focus is on hindrances to prayer and styles of prayer. This is accompanied by a plea for honesty and authenticity – getting away from false piety. Prayer is seen as building a relationship rather than following set agendas. He includes tips for overcoming distractions but crucially he sees prayer as involving discipline & practice – this is not as noted above a quick fix guide to Prayer.

Part 4 – Prayer Dilemmas
Deals with the problem of unanswered prayer and looks at possible causes, e.g. sin, neglect of the needy and other responsibilities. Talks about the blessings of unanswered prayer – that if we were always to get what we prayed for it would simply be too much responsibility.He notes however that for all our explanations there is fundamentally a mystery about this.

Part 5 – The Practise of Prayer
Highlights the need to make time for prayer. Covers some of the effects of prayer – e.g. lifts burdens / lightens mood / liberates from anxiety. Also noted is the benefit of perseverance that leads to patience. Crucially that it is prayer that sustains our relationship with God.

FINAL PERSONAL COMMENTS
I was overall impressed by the thoughtfulness of the book and was grateful for the confirmation that Prayer is about seeking, learning and doing – rather than something to be addressed by easy techniques.

It is a book loaded with memorable quotes so my highlighter pen nearly ran out - which for me is one of the marks of a good book.

Ultimately it challenged me to stop and pray at various points as I read it. It’s a book that will involve a bit of commitment to get through it but will pay dividends for any thoughtful Christian with a desire to further deepen and understand prayer in their life.