“These essays advance the understanding of Eastern Orthodox spiritual practices from a religious studies perspective.”—Reading Religion How do people experience spirituality through what they see, hear, touch, and smell? In this book, Sonja Luehrmann and an international group of scholars assess how sensory experience shapes prayer and ritual practice among Eastern Orthodox Christians. Prayer, even when performed privately, is considered as a shared experience and act that links individuals and personal beliefs with a broader, institutional, or imagined faith community. It engages with material, visual, and aural culture including icons, relics, candles, pilgrimage, bells, and architectural spaces. Whether touching upon the use of icons in the age of digital and electronic media, the impact of Facebook on prayer in Ethiopia, or the implications of praying using recordings, amplifiers, and loudspeakers, these timely essays present a sophisticated overview of the history of Eastern Orthodox Christianities. Taken as a whole they reveal prayer as a dynamic phenomenon in the devotional and ritual lives of Eastern Orthodox believers across Eastern Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia. “Precisely by looking at so varied a group of locations home to Orthodox practice, this book conveys the fragility―and durability―of traditional religion in a postmodern, secular age.”—Nadieszda Kizenko, author of A Prodigal Saint: Father John of Kronstadt and the Russian People

The included Prayers are all experientially focussed with sensory components across the five senses of Sight, Taste, Touch, Smell and Hearing. Within each chapter there are 35 different prayers including five in each of the following sections; Praise & Adoration, Thanksgiving, Confession, Intercession, Petition/Supplication, Responding, as well as prayers which combine the different types. Notes are provided on using each prayer in a variety of different settings including prayers stations, as an individual and in small and large groups such as churches. Other information such as visual images relating to the prayer are included. The175 prayers included in each book are all tagged with keywords and hashtags to help with finding the right prayer. There are several indexes. There's also opening chapters on some of theory behind using experiential prayer too. This is a great book for the worship leader or curator of worship experiences. It’s also suitable for use by individuals or small groups for personal prayer

Praying with Passion is the perfect antidote to listless prayer. Judge McCaigs admonitions are on target. Dr. Charles J. Wisdom, senior associate pastor, Second Baptist Church, Houston, Texas In fifty-nine years as a pastor, Ive read many books on prayer. Praying with Passion is the first that looks at all facets of ones prayer life. I wish I had Praying with Passion during my early years as a believer. I recommend this book to anyone serious about his or her prayer life. Lowell F. Thompson, retired editor and consultant, Baptist Sunday School Board (now LifeWay Christian Resources) If everyone prayed just like you do, what would the world be like? If everyone prayed exactly like you wish you prayed, what would the world be like? The answers to those two questions are very telling. Praying with passion means having an intense, real relationship with God. It means having a conversation with God in which you truly know in your heart that He hears you. Praying with Passion seeks to help you learn to communicate with God and move closer to Him in all parts of your life. Learn to seek Gods will, discern that will, and courageously follow it. Praying with Passion enables you to become passionate in your prayer life, as passion on fire has a far greater effect than knowledge on ice.