This collection of sixteen essays is an important contribution to the historical study of prayer—a subject vital to the lived experience of the Church in any period. Most of the essays reflect very current scholarship, though two were previously published, one as early as 1992. They range from ten to sixty-four pages with appendices, and are arranged in four groups by period, but the more important characterization is the overlapping set of subjects covered.

The Lord's Prayer is the most prominent topic considered, and this book will be a major resource for those interested in this most important Christian prayer. It is examined in each of the four periods, and essays consider it in relation to exegesis, polemics, catechesis, and preaching, as well as in the theology of Gregory of Nyssa, Augustine, and Thomas Aquinas.

A second main type of essays is studies of prayer in influential writers which, in addition to those just mentioned, includes Evagrius Ponticus, Benedict, Anselm, and Jan van Ruusbroec. A third interwoven subject group is the changing connection between prayer and theology, and a fourth is the variety of written collections of prayers used in the Middle Ages.

It is unfortunate that planned essays on women and on several branches of medieval Christianity had to be dropped from the project. Still, the themes covered are major. Even if this volume is not quite the cohesive history of prayer promised by the title, historical and theological research libraries will want to obtain it.