 Book Reviews Providence and Prayer: By Terrance Tiessen Reviewed by Robert P. Mills May/June 2001 |
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That’s not a trick question. But answering it may be trickier than most of us would like to think. Out of concern that Christians’ “actions should be consistent with their theology,” Terrance Tiessen “set out to identify some of the common ways in which God’s involvement in the world has been understood and to discern what sort of petitionary prayer is appropriate to each of these concepts.” The result is Providence and Prayer, a thought-provoking blend of theology and practice that considers how God interacts with the world (the doctrine of providence) and, given our understanding of providence, why and how we should pray. The major portion of the book investigates 10 models of providence and looks at the place of prayer in each. Tiessen first reviews the deistic image of God “as a watchmaker who makes the cosmos … winds it up and then lets it run without further interference.” He next considers process and openness models, in which a God of limited power and knowledge is only slightly more involved with the world. He then discusses models articulated by de Molina, Aquinas, Calvin and Barth before looking at fatalism, in which “God not only determines the outcome of all events [but] is, to all intents and purposes, the only actor in them,” a view in which “petitionary prayer is ruled out.” These chapters are thoroughly researched, well organized and written with general readers in mind. A welcome feature is Tiessen’s hypothetical case study of Fred Henderson, who just learned that his missionary son has been abducted by a group seeking ransom money and political concessions. At the end of each chapter, Tiessen returns to a prayer meeting being held at Fred’s church, showing how a church member who holds the view of providence discussed in that chapter prays in response to the abduction of Fred’s son. The case study thus provides a helpful summary and application of each chapter. And, as Tiessen notes, one way to approach the book would be to read all the case studies first, then study the chapters for more detail. The book concludes with Tiessen’s exposition of his own “middle knowledge Calvinist” view of providence and prayer. (“Middle knowledge,” briefly, knowledge of what would happen if circumstances were different than they actually are, is further defined in the very helpful glossary.) From a distinctly Calvinist perspective, he offers a valuable synthesis of such difficult issues as God’s sovereignty and human freedom, the extent of God’s knowledge and power, and the reasons why our prayers “do affect the outcome as one of the essential factors in the whole complex of events as they transpire through God’s superintendence.” Providence and Prayer is not light reading. But it is an invigorating reminder that all Christian doctrine is intensely practical. Those who accompany Tiessen on his patient, pastoral exploration of the connections between our beliefs about God and our practices of prayer will be rewarded with a deeper knowledge of how we may pray to the God who remains continually at work in the world he has made. |
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