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One of the chief benefits of Philip Yancey's work is that he'll go where the evidence leads. What's the right way to pray? What's the right style of prayer? Yancey's reply: "Ask young parents what is the correct way for their toddlers to approach them, and you will probably get a puzzled look." In fact, Scripture tells of people who kneel to pray, who stand, sit down, lie flat, pray in poetry, pray in prose, and sing their prayers.

The sober truth is that, in the end, the human practice of prayer to God includes enormous variety and mystery. So Yancey's main recipe has only three ingredients: "Keep it honest, keep it simple, and keep it up."

And keep books like these on prayer coming.

Cornelius Plantinga Jr. is president of Calvin Theological Seminary.

Prayer: Does it Make Any Difference and Praying: Finding Our Way Through Duty to Delight can be purchased at ChristianBook.com and other retailers.

ChristianBook.com also has a special shop on Yancey's books.

Zondervan's author page for Philip Yancey includes a list of his books and a link to his site.

An excerpt from Praying: Finding our Way Through Duty to Delight is available at InterVarsity, along with author pages for J.I. Packer and Carolyn Nystrom.

Cornelius Plantinga's most recent for Christianity Today is Dr. Willard's Diagnosis.

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December 2006, Vol. 50, No. 12