Providence & Prayer: How Does God Work in the World?

• Recipient of an Honourable Mention in the 2001 God Uses Ink Contest

"Lord, please give me a parking space!"

That prayer sounds right on your third time around the block, frustrated and late for an appointment. But is it consistent with how God works in the world?

Does prayer change God's mind or only our feelings? Does God do things because we ask him to? Or do we ask him because he prompts us to do so? How much control does God really have in the world, anyway? If he has given us free will, can he always guarantee that things will happen as he intends or wishes? Is our need for parking spaces important enough to bother God, or is he only concerned about things that advance his program of salvation?

If God has already decided how things will turn out, what use is it to pray? On the other hand, if our freedom limits God's ability to achieve his wishes all the time, how much could he do even if we asked for help? How much does God know about the future, and how does this factor into the way our prayers affect the outcome? And how does God's relationship to time enter into the whole equation?

With such questions in mind, Terrance Tiessen presents ten views of providence and prayer--and then adds an eleventh, his own. He describes each view objectively and then tackles the question, If this is the way God works in the world, how then should we pray? The result of his investigation is a book that putsus at the intersection between theological reflection and our life and conversation with God. It prods and sharpens our understanding, making us better theologians and better prayers.

Terrance Tiessen is Professor Emeritus of Systematic Theology and Ethics at Providence Theological Seminary in Otterburne, Manitoba. He has written Irenaeus on the Salvation of the Unevangelized and Providence and Prayer: How Does GodWork in the World?