Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Review : Mystically Wired

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We are designed to make connections to God through prayer in more ways than we can imagine.

Prayer can be so much more than a simple conversation. It can be a wordless connection with God, a step beyond the boundary of the separated self. It can be a way to listen to the silence. And it can be learned.

Click here to learn more.

 

I was looking for a book to help me deepen my prayer life, so when I was given an opportunity to review this one, I jumped at it. It says “Mystically Wired is a practical guide to cooperating with your brain’s innate capacities in order to experience a richer, fuller prayer life. Your brain is wired and waiting to pray in new ways, enabled by a fresh understanding of some ancient prayer disciplines.”

Sounds good, doesn’t it?

I have to admit the book didn’t do a great deal for me. The second half had some useful prayer techniques; and they are summarised nicely in the annexure, which is very useful. However the first half was focused on convincing us that our brains are scientifically wired to respond to activities such as prayer in a certain way. It felt at time as if the writer was trying to convince me that prayer was “scientific” and that our religious response is in fact a physiological response to the meditative aspect.

This is not what the writer was getting at, as he has some very real spiritual insights. But it felt a little apologetic at times, as if prayer needed to be explained.

I review for BookSneeze

I received this book free as part of the Booksneeze programme at Thomas Nelson.  I was not required to give a favourable review.

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2 comments:

  1. I appreciate anything by Andrew Murray. One of the best books I've read on prayer is "The Kneeling Christian" and the author is Anonymous. Glad to have you back even if it is for the occasional post.

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  2. I've heard good things about Andrew Murray, but never actually read any of his stuff.

    Thank you for the two recommendations.

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