Author: Dr Pablo
Martinez
Pages: 160
Year: 2012
Publisher: Monarch
Books
Note: I received a
complimentary copy from Kregel for an honest review. Follow more reviews via Twitter
@lcjohnson1988 or http://seekingwithallyurheart.blogspot.com/
In this
short book there are 5 chapters, divided into two main parts: The Psychology of Prayer and The Apologetics
of Prayer. This book is a revised edition
originally published in 2001. Being an
avid reader, there are many books that I find can cover a vast array of
opinions as well as topics. During my
college years I had to take some psychology classes that weren’t all that
exciting or interesting. Others find
psychology interesting and of value to them. I don’t want to address any of that in this
review; I just want to mention it as this book may be of help to them.
Dr.
Martinez has an interesting perspective that he expresses throughout the book. It isn’t that there aren’t a couple of points
that were worth reading, because there are.
However, I strongly disagree with any author who takes man’s ideas and
then brings in Scripture or looks at Biblical characters from another era and
culture with 21st century psychological ideologies. The book starts out laying the foundation
that how one prays is in accordance to a person’s temperament and personality. Before the reader gets to this first chapter,
the two pages that contain “The Introduction to the First Edition” state the
author’s three purposes for writing his book.
While
the heart of the author and his ideas may be of some help to the readers, the
book is pretty discouraging to me. I
found my mind wondering while just trying to grasp where the doctor was going
and learning the conclusions being drawn.
Upon reading the few who wrote their reviews of this book, most rated it
very highly. I find though that this
book lacks the perspective of looking at prayer through the eyes of Scripture
first before using any of man’s ideas of a psychiatrist, psychologist, or any
field of study. It is inherently
dangerous to begin looking at prayer from a horizontal perspective first and then
looking vertically. Therefore, my rating
of this book is 2 stars for the few good points that the author makes.
