Prayer and Modern Man

Year 1970
Type Book
Genre prayer
Tradition Reformed
Original language French

For For readers who find prayer hard in a secular, technical age and want an honest theological account of it; not a manual of methods.

Should I read this?

For the general reader: 4 of 5 strongly recommended
For the researcher: 3 of 5 worth your time
Difficulty: 2 of 5 moderate

An honest account of why prayer seems impossible in a technical age, and of prayer as obedience and combat.

How it proceeds

Philosophic 2 of 5
Scriptural 3 of 5
Experiential 5 of 5
Sociological 2 of 5
Historical 1 of 5

Independent intensities, 0–5 — what the work is made of, not how good it is.

A book on prayer, translated by C. Edward Hopkin as Prayer and Modern Man (Seabury, 1970); the French edition, L'impossible prière, appeared from Centurion in 1971. Ellul addresses the difficulty of praying in a world shaped by technique and the absence of the sacred. He rejects the usual reasons given for prayer and argues that prayer rests only on God's command and is a form of combat: against the world, against oneself, and with God. It is among the most personal of his theological books.

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Catalog IDW.1ZFPH4.6

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