The Lord and His Prayer

by N. T. Wright

Publisher:

SPCK

, 1996

Overview

The Lord's Prayer is probably the most familiar prayer among believers and unbelievers alike. But is there more to understand than we realize?

The Lord and His Prayer by N. T. Wright offers an answer. This powerful resource, appropriate for preachers, teachers, and laypeople alike, brings a whole different level of understanding to the prayer of all prayers.

Originally a series of sermons preached in Lichfield Cathedral in Advent 1995, The Lord and His Prayer is the fruit of Wright's personal exploration of how Jesus answered his disciples when they asked him how to pray. Wright is convinced The Lord's Prayer summarizes the way Jesus read and responded to the signs of the times and understood the task given to him by the Father—and was inviting his followers to share it. For Wright, it serves as a "lens through which to see Jesus himself and to discover something of what he was about."

Wright examines The Lord's Prayer in its original setting, unpacking it word by word and phrase by phrase. His vast knowledge of the historical background of The Lord's Prayer helps clarify the culture and context behind it, offering a broader understanding of the details behind how Jesus taught his people to pray—and ultimately, experience relationship with the Father.

What You'll Read

How did Jesus answer his disciples when they asked, "How should we pray?" And what did his answer mean?

In The Lord and His Prayer, N. T. Wright provides an answer. He takes readers by the hand to help them discover the deeper meaning behind the prayer—what Jesus was revealing when he responded to His disciples' question, "How should we pray?"

And he does so in an easy-to-understand-and-read format that one reader described as a "challenging book written in graceful prose."

Readers will explore:

• Every word and phrase in the The Lord's Prayer
• Why the author views it as an invitation into the Fatherhood of God
• How prayer reveals the Lord and his will for our lives
• What we are praying for when we pray for God’s kingdom to come
• And more

Reading The Lord's Prayer in its historical setting and proper cultural context is the starting point for a fresh understanding of Christian spirituality and the life of prayer.

Contents

• Prologue
• 1. Our Father in Heaven
• 2. Thy Kingdom Come
• 3. Give Us This Day
• 4. Forgive Us Our Trespasses
• 5. Deliver Us From Evil
• 6. The Power and the Glory

Top Highlights

“That’s why calling God ‘Father’ is the great act of faith, of holy boldness, of risk. Saying ‘our father’ isn’t just the boldness, the sheer cheek, of walking into the presence of the living and almighty God and saying ‘Hi, Dad.’ It is the boldness, the sheer total risk, of saying quietly ‘Please may I, too, be considered an apprentice son.’ It means signing on for the Kingdom of God.” (Pages 19–20)

“The very first word of the Lord’s Prayer, therefore (in Greek or Aramaic, ‘Father’ would come first), contains within it not just intimacy, but revolution. Not just familiarity; hope.” (Page 15)

“It is the rhythm of standing in the presence of the pain of the world, and kneeling in the presence of the creator of the world; of bringing those two things together in the name of Jesus and by the victory of the cross; of living in the tension of the double Advent, and of calling God ‘Father’.” (Page 22)

“We want it because we know, in our heart of hearts, that we want the living God. We want to know him; we want to love him. We want to be able truly to call him Father.” (Pages 11–12)

“When we call God ‘Father’, we are called to step out, as apprentice children, into a world of pain and darkness” (Page 21)

What You'll Learn

In The Lord and His Prayer, N. T. Wright teaches readers what Jesus was revealing to believers in the first century—and today—when he answered His disciples' question, "How should we pray?" Wright, an Anglican priest and authority on the apostle Paul, unpacks the entire prayer to uncover its deeper meaning.

Readers will discover:

• How to pray as Jesus taught
• That the Lord's Prayer is a distillation of Jesus' sense of vocation, his understanding of his Father's purposes
• What it means when they pray "Thy kingdom come"
• What asking God to "Give us this day our daily bread" means—and what it reminds believers about prayer
• How the prayer of forgiveness in The Lord's Prayer affirms that prayer and everyday life here on Earth are connected
• What evil is and how believers can be delivered from it
• What "lead us not into temptation" really means
• How The Lord's Prayer encapsulates the life and work of Jesus
• The context of the Lord's Prayer and how to apply it today
• Why The Lord's Prayer is more than a simple daily recital
• And so much more

Ultimately, readers will learn that The Lord's Prayer is an uncomplicated explanation of the gospel pointing to the restoration of all things—and that those who trust in Jesus should be celebrating his first coming as they eagerly await his return. It will bring a new depth to anyone's prayer life—pastors, teachers, and laypeople alike.

Product Details

• Title: The Lord and His Prayer
• Author: N. T. Wright
• Publisher: SPCK
• Print Publication Date: 1996
• Logos Release Date: 2011
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Church of England › Sermons; Lord’s prayer › Sermons; Sermons, English
• ISBNs: 9780281050246, 0281050244
• Resource ID: LLS:LORDHISPRAYER
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T01:18:51Z

About N. T. Wright

Nicholas Thomas “Tom” Wright (1948–) is a New Testament scholar, Pauline theologian, and Anglican bishop and currently Research Professor Emeritus of New Testament and Early Christianity at St. Mary's College in the University of St Andrews and Senior Research Fellow at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. Christianity Today named him one of today's top theologians. 

Wright was born in Morpeth, Northumberland, and recounts an awareness of God's presence from a young age—and that relationship with God ever since is reflected in his life and work. He's a prolific author; one of his most popular books, Surprised by Hope, frames the resurrection of the dead as the appropriate hope for all believers rather than an overemphasis on just "going to heaven when you die." He's among the leading theologians in the New Perspective on Paul debate. Wright has several honorary doctoral degrees, and in 2014, the British Academy awarded him the Burkitt Medal "in recognition of special service to biblical studies." In 2015, he was made a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Wright served as chaplain at Cambridge from 1978 to 1981, then as assistant professor of New Testament language and literature at McGill University in Montreal. Before becoming a chaplain, tutor, lecturer, and fellow at Oxford in 1986, Wright served as dean of Lichfield Cathedral, canon theologian of Westminster Abbey, and the bishop of Durham from 2003–10. In addition to the entire New Testament for Everyone Series, some of N. T. Wright's books include The New Testament in Its World: An Introduction to the History, Literature, and Theology of the First Christians, Who Was Jesus, The New Testament and the People of God, God and the Pandemic, Evil and the Justice of God, Surprised by Hope, and Simply Christian. He coauthored Jesus the Final Days with Craig A. Evans.