What Happens When I Pray

by Thomas Goodwin

1997 GRACE PUBLICATIONS SOFTCOVER

Genres: Theology

128 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1998

About the author

Thomas Goodwin known as 'the Elder', was an English Puritan theologian and preacher, and an important leader of religious Independents. He served as chaplain to Oliver Cromwell, and was imposed by Parliament as President of Magdalen College, Oxford in 1650. Christopher Hill places Goodwin in the ‘main stream of Puritan thought’.

Reviews

[John Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciated the small chapters that enabled me to work slowly through the book and feel like I was making progress. I also appreciated the pastoral teaching on prayer. The second half of the book addressed common issues in prayer and did so from a pastor’s heart. The distresses and struggles of prayer addresses are universal, common, and timeless. I found the comments to be helpful and thought provoking.

[Jonah Mwas]

Good

[James]

Interesting and thought provoking.
It can be helpful, but it can be(especially the second part) over-extrapolating from a scriptural example to claim that as the norm.

[Winnie Thornton · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is actually two books. Sort of. It's a combination of 1) a revised book on prayer by Benjamin Palmer, whose apparently flowery prose has been modernized, and 2) a condensed version of Thomas Goodwin's brilliant book The Return of Prayers, which I read separately.

I didn't read the original book by Palmer, but reading this modernized version, I'd say I'd prefer the original. The truth is all good, but it's pretty plain. The trick with modernizing flowery old prose is that you can't simply update the raw grammar. You have to update the eloquence itself.

As for Thomas Goodwin, the original book is so far superior to this abridgment, you can't even say they're the same. Chuck this and read The Return of Prayers.

[Reginald Detabali · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though a short exposition on prayer yet rich in it teachings. If you want to live in the light of God's will in your life then this book is a must read. And also, the authors credibility makes this book much more powerful.