PRAYER: A HISTORY

PRAYER: A HISTORY
Philip Zaleski and Carol Zaleski
Houghton Mifflin

I had a conversation recently with someone concerning the efficacy of meditation. I was paraphrasing Dogen, the 12th century Zen master, who argued that if we sit zazen for even a moment, the whole phenomenal world becomes enlightened. It is an audacious claim at the very least, but I admire the strangeness and deep poetry behind the idea.
My friend, shocked that I’d take this absurd claim seriously, asked me, “You don’t actually believe that do you?”
I decided right there that if this idea evokes that much resistance, it is probably worth investigation.
We live in a demanding, dangerous age. We have been told by good people that we must act to save the world, and that it is morally reprehensible to be passive. What could be more ineffective than prayer?
So it seems, although one could argue that if we acted a little less precipitously, if we took the contemplative life a bit more seriously, our actions might be more effective. It also needs to be said that prayer is an action.
Prayer: A History is a robust, dense, encyclopedic and fascinating book about the phenomenon of prayer among human communities across time. Fortunately, the Zaleski’s don’t have any particular theological ax to grind. They are respectful of the infinite variety of responses that characterize the activity of prayer, and they appear to have read almost everything.
The book includes a particularly interesting discussion of what the Zaleski’s characterize as the four fundamental modes of prayer. These are exemplified by the figures of the Refugee, Devotee, Ecstatic and Contemplative. Robinson Crusoe, Bill W., the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, The Prayer of Jabez, a recent pop culture publishing success, and The Cloud of Unknowing, a medieval prayer manual, all appear as vivid examples of the various archetypes.