Never-Ending Prayer

Annotation

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