When Prayer Takes Place

Where in the world was Jesus when he prayed? Where is any one of us when we pray? Since we are embodied creatures, our prayer location can be mapped onto space-time coordinates. Since we are social creatures, our prayers are also situated within our social locations. But do these sets of coordinates exhaustively identify the place that prayer takes when truly entered into? Conversely, can either set totally prevent prayer from taking place there? These questions lie at the intersection of resolutely religious vis-a-vis resolutely secular understandings of existence. The studies in this volume explore dimensions of these issues traced in selected texts from both parts of the Christian Bible. ""Janzen has been looking at these biblical texts all his life. Every time he looks again, he sees something else by way of connection or nuance . . . It is a delight to salute this long-loved colleague on this rich offer that, as always from him, is a gift of newness."" --Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary ""Rare is the exegete who is wise beyond his or her own specialty. Rarer still is the interpreter who explores the text down to its minutest of details with infectious wonder. Janzen is that exegete: text critic, theologian, philosopher, and poet. His exegetical forays are unhurried expeditions of a vivacious mind that will touch the heart, indelibly."" --William P. Brown, Columbia Theological Seminary ""Janzen models what the exegetical imagination can do when it is focused on significant questions and disciplined by wide-ranging study, thorough and exact knowledge of the biblical text, and the life of prayer itself. These essays invite us to slow down and savor Scripture."" --Ellen F. Davis, Duke Divinity School ""In these essays, both old and new, Janzen delves into detailed exegetical and intertextual analyses of biblical texts, crossing both Testaments and constantly appealing to the original languages with a sensitivity that generates profoundly existential reflection on one's own relationship with God. I found his essays transformative both for my reading of Scripture and for my own life."" --J. Richard Middleton, Northeastern Seminary J. Gerald Janzen is MacAllister-Petticrew emeritus Professor of Old Testament at Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis. He has published commentaries on Genesis 12-50, Exodus, and Job, and his most recent book is At the Scent of Water: The Ground of Hope in the Book of Job (2009). Brent A. Strawn is an associate professor of Old Testament at the Candler School of Theology and Graduate Division of Religion at Emory University. He recently edited The Bible and the Pursuit of Happiness: What the Old and New Testaments Teach Us about the Good Life (2012). Patrick D. Miller is Charles T. Haley Professor of Old Testament Theology emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary. He recently authored The Ten Commandments (2009).