Never-Ending Prayer: A Case for the Christian Tradition

Is Christian 'tradition' to be maintained as the absolute body of truth? Can it be used selectively depending on the preferences of individual believers? What can 'religious truth' possibly mean in our age of opinions and overwhelming cultural diversity? These are unsettling questions for Christians, their effect aggravated by our daily encounter with non-western cultures and non-Christian religions, and by the increasing presentation of secularism and atheism as the 'normal' way of life. In Never-Ending Prayer, Bert Hoedemaker outlines the continuing importance of tradition, while showing that in facing these challenges our understanding of tradition needs a 'reset'. Drawing on his own experiences of world Christianity, he reconstructs the Christian tradition in such a way that it no longer defines and defends itself as a specific body of concepts and practices over against 'the world' but as a living community originating in and remaining in interaction with humanity's permanent struggles. It is presented as a system of religious imagination in which prayer is the driving force and reconciliation is seen as the destination of humankind.

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1. Imagination Imagining a world Imagination and reason Religious imagination Interlude: imagination and science The dual role of imagination Appendix: imagination and human evolution 2. Tradition Memory and anticipation Religious traditions Tradition and (post)modernity Fundamentalism and bricolage Memory and anticipation reconsidered 3. Prayer Never-ending introspection Conversation with God The pluriformity of prayer The language of prayer Review and Preview 1 4. Self The (dis)armed subject Meeting the other The guilty self Confession of guilt Amor ergo sum 5. God God is dead God is there God withdraws God is near God is one 6. World Theistic imagination World as history World as evolution World as cosmos World as creation Review and Preview 2 7. Memory Jesus in history Leading images: incarnation and resurrection The paradigm of sacrifice The coming of the Son of Man 8. Anticipation The kingdom of God The unity of humankind The individual not-yet Life-death-life 9. Mission Missionary dynamic Dispersing Gathering Church World A Personal Epilogue Index

About the Author :
Dr Libertus Hoedemaker is Professor Emeritus of Groningen State University and the Protestant Theological Faculty of the Netherlands. He has held academic positions in Indonesia and the Netherlands, and guest professorships in the USA, Hong Kong and Switzerland. His previous publications include The Theology of H. Richard Niebuhr; Secularization and Mission: A Theological Essay; and a chapter in Foust et al, A Scandalous Prophet: The Way of Mission after Newbigin.

Review :
With his claim that the 'unfinished business' of tradition is to re-imagine Jesus Christ in ten thousand places, and his gift for making the familiar ('church'; 'world') strange again, Hoedemaker writes as a poet of Christian mission. In an increasingly politicized world, here is a timely and impassioned plea for engaging the Christian tradition as an eschatological vision of reconciliation, of a humankind beyond polarization. Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Research Professor of Systematic Theology, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School Many commentators on the place of the church and the Christian faith in a post-Christian context mandate an ongoing engagement with the Christian tradition due to its truth or beauty or its historic and so ongoing significance for society. These solutions, however, due to their recourse to an essentialist authority, reside beyond the believer. Hoedemaker refuses such an approach, arguing for the Christian tradition as a living and lived out discourse, one which invites participation and criticism and embodiment. A marvellous work of Christian theology, sensitive to deep questioning of the faith by sceptics and believers alike, Never-Ending Prayer is a 'pastoral epistle' of the highest order. It is a work of hope and of direction for those uncertain of where they stand. John G. Flett, Professor of Missiology and Intercultural Theology, Pilgrim Theological College, Melbourne, Australia Bert Hoedemaker creatively distils the wisdom of half a century of theological reflection, ecumenism and mission experience into one picture. In doing so, he successfully integrates personal faith, the Christian understanding of God, and the vision of a reconciled world. The result is a lucid and profound challenge to 'self-invented spirituality' and a renewed presentation of Christian faith to the secular world. Kirsteen Kim, Paul E. Pierson Chair in World Christianity, Fuller Theological Seminary The book is filled with illuminating insights. The Christian imagination transforms personal introspection into a conversation with God in the context of trusting and listening, the author writes. God ceases to be a concept and becomes a presence, a 'conversation partner'. These are the beginnings of prayer and of faith. Jim Corrigal, Faith and Freedom, vol 76 part 1, Spring/Summer 2023, number 196