The only prayer Jesus taught to his disciples has lived on the lips and in the hearts of countless Christians for two millennia. The number of books and articles devoted to it is beyond reckoning. Yet Gerhard Lohfink has managed to write a brief, thoughtful volume that renders this prayer fresh, urgent, and inspiring for a new generation.

Thanks to his own New Testament scholarship and his collaboration with his brother, the Old Testament scholar Norbert, the author has brought the Lord's Prayer to life in a way that models good intertextual scholarship. The reader comes away from his study, ably translated by Linda M. Maloney, with a new appreciation of the Old Testament roots of each petition of the prayer and of their significance as petitions meant first to be uttered by disciples sent forth on mission by Jesus himself and then by generations of Christians to follow.

The German scholar sheds fresh light on each of the petitions. His treatment of two of them offers an indication of his approach.

Lohfink believes that “hallowed be thy name,” because of its position as the first request, is the most important one. Yet the average Christian would find it hard to explain what the phrase means. For the author, the key to appreciating this petition is the theology at the heart of the book of Ezekiel, found in chapter 36. God's name is sanctified when five interrelated saving events come to pass: God accepts God's people; God assembles that people from its dispersion; God makes it again to be one people; God gives it a new heart; and God fills it with holy Spirit (40). Of course, none of this happens in either Jesus’ day or ours without graced human cooperation.

Pope Francis has recently called attention to the penultimate petition: “lead us not into temptation.” Many Christians have found this request a strange one. Lohfink traces it back to reflections such as we find in Isaiah 45, where God is spoken of as the author of both weal and woe, in an effort to dethrone false gods by affirming the God of Israel as the ultimate cause of everything that happens. He offers this alternate version: “Lead us not into a situation that will be too hard for us! Lead us not into a situation in which temptation will overcome us!” (97)

This slim volume is a gem. Two glaring lapses for this reviewer occurred when Lohfink was discussing the testing of Jesus in the wilderness. He avers, without offering any evidence, that, during the testing, “even Jesus was tempted by all that, to the very depths of his being,” and then goes on to affirm that “Jesus was tested by God in the desert.…” To be tempted is to be attracted to a possibility that one can either choose to follow or resist. It is impossible for this reviewer to think that Jesus found attractive the idea of undermining his mission by exercising distorted power over things (stones to bread), persons (controlling kingdoms), and his relationship with God (forcing God's hand to rescue Jesus from self-produced danger). And the biblical text makes it clear that it is Satan who is doing the testing, not God.

Apart from these concerns, this reviewer enthusiastically recommends this volume to all those who would like to deepen their appreciation of the Old Testament roots of this prayer and to all who desire that their recitation of the Lord's Prayer be infused with fresh meaning.