Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Living through the Lord's Prayer

by Telford Work

Karl Barth's legendary image of preaching with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other now has a matching image for praying. In Ain't Too Proud to Beg Telford Work encourages praying with a social documentary in one hand and the Lord's Prayer in the other. The result is neither a commentary on the Lord's Prayer nor a theology of prayer. Instead it is an exercise book that uses prayer to strengthen our theological muscles.

Work proposes that we take whatever is happening in our world -- a political election or the latest war will do -- and set the Lord's Prayer in the middle of it. Let that prayer shed light on the scene and expose what matters. Then pray it. Then look again and see how the prayer is a response to what matters. These three movements give structure to the book as a whole and to each chapter within it. Prayed this way, the Lord's Prayer is always new and never quite the same.

Ecumenical, evangelical, postmodern, and irenic in tone, Ain't Too Proud to Beg ends not with a neat scholarly wrap-up but with an open-ended "Amen" -- three sparkling, joyful sermons -- a fitting ending to Work's provocative exploration of prayer as a theological process.

Genres: Theology

276 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[JonM · Rating 5 out of 5]

I devoured this book. It was very interesting and thorough. My only critique of the book is its title. Currently the title is "Ain't too proud to beg: Living through the Lords Prayer." However, as Amazon shows in its picture, an earlier title was "Ain't too proud to beg: Exercises in Prayerful Theology."

Spoiler Alert: If you think this book is a commentary on the Lords Prayer, you will be disappointed. About 90% of it reflects his own personal theology, which has been influenced by "prayerful" thoughts and insights about the God, the Church, world history, and Western culture. Roughly 10% is connected with the Lord's Prayer. Nevertheless, it is an outstanding theological work. Very enjoyable from beginning to end.

[Bryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book for three reasons: 1) It was cheap; 2) It had good reviews by Eugene Peterson and Stanley Hauerwas; 3) It sounded interesting.

As I started reading I realized this book was simply great, and read through it very quickly. It is very well written and very substantial theologically but not a bit obscure or difficult. Social documentary is a great description for how he contextualizes the prayer so that the reader can see just how applicable it always is. One of the best spiritual theology books I've read. If you like Peterson you will like Work, but it's not as much work as Peterson can sometimes be.

[P.L. White · Rating 5 out of 5]

Professor Work said he had some rambling thoughts on life and prayer, especially the Lord's prayer. I wish my rambling thoughts were as succinct and profound. He left me with two great impressions. One, he knows and communicates well the great challenges of our times so much so that I wondered at times if the darkness would overwhelm. This lead me to question my own attempts to lay forth certain challenges before a congregation when preaching from Biblical texts. I often invite the congregation to look at the point of tension and then see if the passage speaks either to that point or the personal point of tension each individual might be facing at that moment. At times I thought I could do this well. Now I know what if feels like to have someone challenge me in much the same way, but to a far greater extent. Point two is this. There was a period of time in which I thought I might be interested in doing the kind of ministry Telford Work is currently doing. Reading his challenges has convinced me that he is doing very well that which I could have only dreamed of doing. May the Lord bless his life and the lives of all who take up the challenge of his book.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this whole book (and not just because my name is in the acknowledgements). Telford shows, phrase by phrase, how the Lord's Prayer is transformative. I can't figure out how to summarize this book without quoting lengthy passages (maybe that means I need to read it again), but it certainly leaves me with a lot to think about. The last chapter and two of the sermons at the end were especially useful and interesting during the last presidental election.