The Lord and His Prayer

Second Reading:
I have a class on the Lord's Prayer in two weeks and this is one of the suggested but optional texts. It was super short and I had a copy of it already. So I quickly listened to the audiobook again to refresh my memory. And then I listened to the last chapter of Simply Good News by Wright which is about the Lord's Prayer as a summary of the message of Christ.

He starts at the end of the prayer and works backwards to think of how we tend to frame prayer and then reverses and goes from the front to the end to illustrate how the framing of the prayer rightly impacts how we pray and understand Christ as king.

I think that if I were his publisher, I would try to get the last chapter of Simply Good News added into the Lord and His Prayer because it would fit very well.

This is from my post on Simply Good News:

“The end of the book looks practically at the Lord's Prayer to illustrate how moving from a focus on individual sin to a corporate submission to Christ's kingship changes our understanding of Christianity. Wright suggests that individual sin focus leads us to do the Lord's Prayer backwards, help me, forgive me my sins, give me what I need and because you have done those things you are great. But instead the Lord's Prayer has a particular order that Wright thinks better illustrates the point of the Gospel, Lord you are Hallowed, we ask that your kingdom come now on earth as it is in heaven so that all things may be reconciled to you and submit to you, and so that your will as King be done both on earth as it is in heaven. And as King, give us our needs, forgive us our sin and help us to forgive (and act rightly toward) those around us. And keep us from temptations and evil that we cannot endure.”
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Short Review: this is a helpful short book on the Lord's prayer. I appreciate Wright's pastoral tone and focus, without talking down to lay readers. I have read several books on the Lord's Prayer and I think this is a good one for teaching the Lord's Prayer as theology and discipleship while still being practical about praying it.

Another that I liked was Living Prayer: The Lord's Prayer Alive in You, which was more practical and less theological. Wright also has a very good chapter on the Lord's Prayer in Simply Good News: Why the gospel is good news and what makes it good news. But there is little overlap in material between that chapter (which focuses on how the order of the prayer orients us to understanding what the gospel is really about) and this book which is a line by line exploration of the prayer. But both are well worth reading because both are oriented around right theology and right practice of discipleship.

This isn't as easy to get as I would like. The Kindle version isn't available right now and has been expensive for less than 100 pages. The audiobook is reasonably priced and cheaper than the paperback. But for a book less than 100 pages, I would like it to be cheaper.

It would make a good small group discussion with six chapters of about 12-15 pages each.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/the-lord-and-his-prayer-by-nt-wright/