Prayer and the New Testament.

Prayer and the New Testament
Robert Karris
Crossroad, $25.95, 232 pp.

A few years ago in this column I reviewed favorably Oscar Cullmann's Prayer in the New Testament (1995) which, like every book on the subject, pays tribute to Joachim Jeremias's classic The Prayers of Jesus (1978). In the face of these formidable scholars, Robert Karris asks rhetorically, why yet another book on New Testament prayer? For one, a lot of scholarly work has been done since Jeremias wrote. Further, Cullmann pays little attention to books of the New Testament beyond the synoptics, John, and the authentic letters of Paul. By contrast, Karris writes a wonderful opening chapter on the prayer of the historical Jesus with particular attention to Jewish prayer of the time. He follows with an excellent discussion of Luke-Acts (Cullmann did not discuss Acts), a chapter on John, and one on Paul with a focus on Philippians. Karris then rounds out his book with a consideration of the hymns in Revelation and a wonderful chapter on the Letter of James. At the end of each chapter, Karris provides a helpful bibliography of pertinent references to aid further study.

Karris has produced an unusual book for a biblical scholar. For while he has complete command of that literature, Karris is also a scholar of matters Franciscan. He does not shy away from quoting Bonaventure's commentary on Luke, which he has just translated, or the Admonitions of Saint Francis, about which he has recently written. These references, as well as asides on pastoral practice, art, and music, never lead Karris away from his primary task: close reading of prayers found in the New Testament. Karris is particularly good at explicating New Testament prayers which have entered the formal prayer life of the church. He has a wonderfully readable discussion of the Lord's Prayer in both the recension of Matthew and the one of Luke. He summarizes and synthesizes excellent research on Mary's hymn, the "Magnificat," as well as liturgical staples, the "Benedictus" and the "Nunc Dimittis."

What I most enjoyed about Prayer and the New Testament are the many new ways in which Karris approaches the subject of prayer. He discusses, for instance, the places where the biblical writer tells us that Jesus prayed but where the contents of those prayers are unrecorded; these instances are almost always, Karris says, responses to moments of crisis or decision-making. He insightfully observes that in the Gospel of John the supposed digression about John the Baptist (John 1: 6-8) is not an interruption at all. Following a suggestion by Morna Hooker, Karris argues that those verses refer to the Incarnation--a point which will now compel me to modify what I have been telling my freshmen for the past decade or so! In another place, Karris notices that Paul invokes the name of God twenty times in the very brief letter to the Philippians, leading us to consider the letter as a kind of prayer.

Anyone who reads Prayer and the New Testament will learn a good deal. My only wish is that Karris had considered those petitions directed to Jesus, phrases such as "Lord, that I may see" or "I do believe, help my unbelief." They are profound prayers for use by Christians today. That small omission aside, this is a fine book, every bit as good as Cullmann's (in some ways, better) and an excellent updating of Jeremias.

John Jay Hughes is not a biblical scholar but he does have something in common with Robert Karris: he is a priest with an instinctual pastoral sense. Hughes's little volume, Stories Jesus Told, is a series of meditations on the parables, first given as retreat conferences to the contemplative Sisters of Jesus Crucified, whose members include women suffering from physical disabilities.

Hughes wants these chapters to be read as a kind of lectio divina with the hope that they will energize the reader's prayer life. What he does not say, but what comes through clearly in these pages, is that his meditations are enhanced by many shrewd pastoral observations. Hughes notes, for instance, the spiritual progress in people who come to confession with an unaltering list of sins in their having not found nor given in to new ways of sinning.

Lawrence S. Cunningham teaches theology at the University of Notre Dame.