The Greatest Prayer audiobook

When I lost faith in the God of Abraham six years ago, I had also pretty much given up on Christianity as having the potential to contribute much to the progressive change the world desperately need. The bulk of Christianity seemed so regressive; focused mainly on oppression of marginalized groups and maintaining economic inequality. Reading John Crossan has restored my faith that perhaps there is hope for Christianity yet. Although some of his views (such as on the atonement) are sure to alienate many Christians, I encourage all to read the book anyway. Crossan's tone is universal and prophetic- and he sees the Lord's prayer not just as a prayer reserved for Christians, but a prayer for all the people of the world.

Warning: Read this book and you will never again pray the Lord's Prayer in the same way. This biblical mediation on the Lord's Prayer by John Dominic Crossan is an extraordinary philosophical, historical, political and theological examination of the best known of Christian prayers. The book's basic premise is startlingly simple, yet astoundingly profound: The Lord's Prayer speaks to the conscience of the entire world—not only Christians. What's more, it derives from the heart of Judaism.Crossan, who insists the Lord's prayer is both a revolutionary manifesto and a poetic hymn, examines it by analyzing six words: Father/name, kingdom, will, bread, debt and temptation. For example, "thy kingdom come" refers to the ruling style of God, while "bread" refers to the power and security of food for *everyone* today, tomorrow and forever.While parts of the book are somewhat philosophically weighty (translation: pay attention and don't doze off while reading), I will never again pray the Lord's Prayer by rote. There is such magnificent meaning and symbolism embedded in this short prayer, and this book woke me up to its awesome power, significance and magnitude.

Deep within this remarkable exploration of the Lord’s Prayer, John Dominic Crossan quotes Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.. when he stated “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Separately, he quotes Sophocles from “Antigone”, “How sad when those who reason, reason wrong.” Both of these are wonderful summaries of Crossan’s argument. He sees in Jesus, and in the Lord’s Prayer, a revolutionary message, one of hope and distributive justice. In his exegesis, he uses incredibly well-reasoned arguments and logic to support his position against the interpretations of others. This book is vintage Crossan.Crossan calls the Lord’s Prayer “The Strangest Prayer.” He says, “It is prayed by Christians who focus on the next life in heaven or in hell, but it never mentions the next life, heaven, or hell. It is prayed by Christians who emphasize what it never mentions and also prayed by Christians who ignore what it does.” He asks the question, “What if the Lord’s Prayer is neither a Jewish prayer for Jews nor yet a Christian prayer for Christians? What if it is—as this book suggests—a prayer from the heart of Judaism on the lips of Christianity for the conscience of the world? What if it is—as this book suggests—a radical manifesto and a hymn of hope for all humanity in language addressed to all the earth?” Discussing the revolutionary nature of the Lord’s Prayer, “Do not, by the way, let anyone tell you that is Liberalism, Socialism, or Communism. It is—if you need an –ism—Godism, Householdism or, best of all, Enoughism. We sometimes name that biblical vision of God’s World-Household as Egalitarianism but, actually, Enoughism would be a more accurate description.” He reiterates his thesis at the start, “The Lord’s Prayer is, to repeat, both a revolutionary manifesto and a hymn of radical hope.”His analysis of biblical parallelism is masterful. “Throughout those seismic disturbances, that prophetic challenge of distributive justice rather than ritual prayer remained constant and consistent. In what follows, therefore, watch how the negative usually precedes and even overshadows the positive. And wonder to yourself why they speak that way. Why is justice set against prayer rather than joined together with it?...I begin with the prophet Amos [in the 700s BCE]…I focus here, in this first statement, on the striking dichotomy between prayer and justice. God is speaking through the prophet: Negative: ‘I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon. Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps.’ Positive: ‘But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. (5:21-24)’ Once again, by the way, we find that parallelism between ‘justice’ and ‘righteousness.’ It reminds us that both terms means distributive justice in the biblical tradition.” He goes on to show how Hosea essentially simplified but maintained Amos’ message, and very similarly in First Isaiah and in Micah from the southern kingdom. He demonstrates how Jeremiah in the 600s BCE goes even further, and with some changes in emphasis how the message is maintained in Third Isaiah in the 500s. “My own interpretation places those prophetic assertions of justice against prayer back into a dynamic and organic unity of justice-and-prayer or prayer-and-justice. In my understanding, meditation and action or ritual prayer and distributive justice can be distinguished, but not separated. They are like two sides of a coin that exist only as a unity…Even a preference for one side over the other cannot create separation.” He goes on to state that, “The mysterious secret of prayer is that—like all other human matters—it must mature over time and through practice. And, of course, immaturity is as possible in prayer as anywhere else in our lives. But there is a path forward, because this is how our prayer growth develops: REQUEST (complaint and petition) -> GRATITUDE (thanksgiving and praise) -> EMPOWERMENT (participation and collaboration). There is nothing wrong with prayers of request. There is everything right with taking our hopes and fears under the shadow of transcendence. Neither is there anything wrong—but rather everything right—with prayers of gratitude for the mystery of existence, the challenge of life, and the glory of creation. But it is an immature view of prayer that addresses a Supreme Being radically apart from us who thinks and wills, knows and hears, grants and refuses more or less as we do, but with infinite broadband.” “That overall parallelism is underlined in one other way. The opening verse is ‘Our Father in heaven (literally, ‘in the heavens’). Next comes mention of God’s name, kingdom, and will. Then we have a verse that I cite in the Greek sequence: ‘as in heaven so on earth.’ In other words, the first half of the prayer is framed by a phrase about heaven and the next half opens with mention of earth. But, once again, each three-unit side is both heavenly and earthly, each side is both divine and human. It is not as if God does the first part and we do the second one. Both the divine ‘Your’ and the human ‘Our’ are operative on both sides. It is, to repeat from earlier, a dialectical relationship, like two sides of the same coin, which can be distinguished by not separated.”Crossan masterfully explores the word “hallowed” in the Lord’s Prayer. He revers to Leviticus 19, which states, “I am the Lord” 8 times, “I am the Lord your God” 6 times, and “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt” as the crescendo. “We are never allowed to forget divine holiness as a model—or better, empowerment—for human holiness. But notice especially that climactic identification of God as the one ‘who brought you out of the land of Egypt’ (19:36). God is the Deliverer, Redeemer, and Savior of the oppressed.” (59) He goes on to talk about how this model must be “continued in Israel’s deliverance of its own oppressed.” “My conclusion, so far, is that, for Leviticus 19, divine holiness models human holiness insofar as both maintain distributive justice.” Exploring the words, “Your Kingdom come,” Crossan refers back to “the fifth kingdom, the kingdom of God, [which] is brought down from heaven to earth by a transcendental Human One who as been entrusted with it by God, the transcendent Ancient One (7:9-13).” Daniel 7 mentions this 3 separate times. In Isaiah 11:4-5, “the repetition of ‘righteousness’ frames violence against the wicked of the earth. But that violence is also certainly a mode of divine rather than human violence, for this messiah strikes the earth and kills the wicked with mouth and breath alone.” Later, he discusses the differences in the proclamations of John the Baptist, who said the arrival of the messiah was imminent, and Jesus, who proclaimed that the kingdom of God was already here. Elements of Crossan’s other novels creep in from time to time. “Jesus died to maintain the integrity of his life…His nonviolent resistance to violence as a revelation of God’s own character was consummated by that execution. We have no word for the crucifixion of Christ other than ‘sacrifice,’ a making sacred of both life and death, a gift both to divinity and to humanity. It was never, ever, a substitution for anything.” Later, he states, “We must always intentionally focus that ‘thine’ on God as nonviolent rather than on Satan as violent. Nonviolent justice or violent injustice is the essential choice between God and Satan and their respective kingdoms.” You can find this language in his other works, many of which are similarly controversial.Crossan is at his best when he returns to parsing the language and explaining his interpretation. Regarding, “Give us this day our daily bread” Crossan states, “I read Mark’s parable to say that there is more than enough food already present upon our earth when it passes through the hands of divine justice; when it is taken, blessed, broken, and given out; when food is seen as God’s consecrated gift. The now present kingdom of God is about the equitable distribution of our earth for all. Jesus simply enacts that parable of God as Householder of the World.” Near the end, Crossan summarizes his argument masterfully in the following passage:“Five connected themes are interwoven throughout this book’s meditation on the Abba Prayer of Jesus. A first theme begins by translating the patriarchal name ‘father’ as the more appropriate term ‘householder.’ It accordingly understands God the Father as God the Householder of the World. And as the human householder makes sure that all in the household have enough, so also does the divine Householder. That is the awesome simplicity behind the Bible’s acclamation of God as a God of ‘justice and righteousness.’ It is only just and right that all who dwell together—in household or Household—have enough. A second theme is that, at the dawn of creation in Genesis 1:26-27, the divine Householder created human beings as ‘images’ of that divine character. We are to collaborate with God as appointed stewards of a world that we must maintain in justice and equality. ‘It is required of stewards,’ as Paul says, ‘that they be found trustworthy’ (1 Cor. 4:2). A third theme is that, for Christians, Jesus is the ‘Son’ of the ‘Father,’ who is the divine Householder of the World. ‘Son’ is another patriarchal term, but also a very specific one in a world of male primogeniture, where the firstborn son—or the only son—is the sole heir of the household. Jesus is the Heir of God, the divine Householder of the World. A fourth element is that Christians are called to collaborate with Christ as Heir of God. That comes from the collaborative nature of the kingdom of God as eschaton, that is, from our necessary participation in the Great Divine Cleanup of the World. We cry out ‘Abba! Father!’ to quote Paul once more, in ecstatic awareness that we are ‘heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ’ (Rom. 8:15, 17). A fifth and final theme is how all of that comes together in the Abba Prayer of Jesus. It is both a revolutionary manifesto and a hymn of hope not just for Christianity, but for all the world. Better, it is addressed from Christianity to all the world. Better still, it is from the heart of Judaism through the mouth of Christianity to the conscience of the earth.”Crossan’s arguments are reasoned and impassioned. This is well worth the read for anyone looking for an in depth study of the Lord’s Prayer.See my other reviews here!

I was skeptical someone could write an entire book explicating a single, familiar prayer -- or anyway do so in a way that wasn't boring to the point of tears -- but Crossan manages to pull it off in a remarkable way. The prayer in question is the "Our Father" or "Lord's Prayer," which he calls "a prayer from the heart of Judaism, on the lips of Christianity, for the conscience of the world... A radical manifesto and a hymn of hope for all humanity, in language addressed to all the earth." What always seemed to me to be a simple profession of faith or fealty to God is transformed under Crossan's interpretation into a call to dedicate oneself to the cause of economic justice and peaceful resistance to political oppression. It sounds like a stretch but Crossan has me convinced.

The prayer that reveals the meaning and purpose of Jesus This is a must read for anyone who wants to know, understand and follow Jesus. In this prayer of Jesus we have the full summary of his message and mission. Let's pray this prayer together and not just say it.

Because I often don't have the right words, using the Lord's Prayer is often my practice. This took the meaning sentence by sentence, giving it a livable contemporary meaning.

If you are into reading a meandering spiritual book grounded in history you’d love this book. I read this book (audio) three times in few weeks. This is a multi faith book, people of different faiths can truly love and appreciate the book.John Dominic Crossan uses historical events, texts of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament to dissect every word in this prayer and come down to a conclusion that the prayer is about justice through non violence or justice and love being one thing.Crossan starts out with Our Father and through numerous examples concludes that it is the equivalent of the head of household, the household of humanity who is responsible for looking after those in the house. He moves on the bread and debt and insists that the literal meaning of enough to eat and actual financial debt are important not just the metaphoric meanings implied by trespasses and sins. Crossan emphasizes texts that makes it clear that forgiveness of others as a precondition for receiving God’s forgiveness. Perhaps the most difficult, most nuanced part is Crossan contemplation of temptation. Here Crossan forcefully argues that it’s the temptation to use violence in the name of God or for his sake. So the prayer is for God to protect the supplicant from the urge to commit acts of violence and he emphasizes here that this includes acts of violence in self defence.This is a beautiful book that I highly recommend.

RequirementsMy mother used to say defensively "What's wrong with ritual? It gives you more opportunities to think about the meaning." How many times have we all read the Lord's Prayer ? Heard it? Said it? I, for one, have considered nearly every translation, phrase and word beginning with the initial "Our" and have yet to come to any fixed or permanent interpretation either of the parts or the whole. What Crossan offers is a well balanced, reasonable, and, indeed, passionate examination of the prayer in support of his conclusions about its original and present meaning. Christianity has slipped a long way from its origins. While Crossan's arguments elide in a few slippery places, they and his conclusions are of great religious value.

I'd give this book 5 stars if it didn't try so hard to try and remove so much of the Gospels from Jesus mouth to say it was merely tradition. All scholars understand the tradition and the human side if the creation of the Bible but we don't need to add new theories to prove a point we already believe to push an agenda. Other than that, this book is a wealth of knowledge on the sources and background of the ancient and Jewish side of Scripture as related to the Lords Prayer.Well researched and organized to please an average studier of Scripture to the studied scholar looking to site sources for a peer reviewed journal or grad paper.If you want to study one of the most iconic ancient prayers of all time and really learn what it means to pray it then and now, this book is for you!

Best book (pub. in 2010) on the "Lord's prayer" I've found/read since reading, over 47 years ago, Joachim Jeremias' book "The Lord's Prayer" (pub. in English 1962, which I read sometime between 1972-1974 during my 3 years of theology studies at the Jesuit School of Theology, Berkeley, CA). I'm sorry (for myself) it has taken me 11 years after Crossan's book was published to read his book. A truly "revolutionary" (but solidly-biblically based) interpretation/reinterpretation of the "Abba" prayer of Jesus. It transforms the meaning of the Lord's Prayer every time you pray the prayer during reading, and after the time you finish, the Crossan book.

Is it heavy, or is it deep?Yes and yes. It was nothing close to what I was looking to learn about The Lord's Prayer. After finishing the book, I can't remember my expectation at the beginning. JDC has been studying and writing about God / Jesus forever and I would call this book understandable, but not relateable. It was interesting and a fast read. I recently read Zealot and after finishing this book, I think I shall next read more mystery / thriller or American history before again wading into the deep theological writings that are certainly not the belief of mainstream Christianity.

Dr. Crossan and his work have always impressed me and made me go “wow” out loud a number of times. This book was no exception. I did have to be a bit more patient than with his other work for the payoff, but, without fail, I’m again feeling blown away. I think the Lord’s Prayer takes on a new life with these considerations included.

This book didn't disappoint. I like Crossan, though theologically I'm probably closer to Wright. However Crossan did a great job of tracing the political implications of this prayer, and what it means to participate and cooperate in Jesus' mission of the Kingdom.

Crossan is so good at explaining his interpretation of the Gospels. I love how he contrasted the two translations both in Matthew and in Luke.I especially liked his writing about the use of Abba/ Father in a much more inclusive sense.

Highly recommend this book on the LordsPray