Review – Give God the Glory: Ancient Prayer and Worship

Jerome H. Neyrey. Give God the Glory: Ancient Prayer and Worship in Cultural Perspective. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2007.

New Testament studies, worship, prayer–the list of books, articles, and other scholarly materials on these topics is not a short one. Amid the cacophony of interpretive voices, Jerome Neyrey offers an intriguing descant as he aims to bring readers into an understanding and appreciation of the “otherness” of the culture in which the Christian scriptures and early church worship came to be. In Prayer and Worship, In Other Words, Neyrey takes a new tack by reading the materials in terms of social science models and the theory of communication. He examines New Testament passages in context of both the Hebraic ethos and the Greco-Hellenistic culture in which these scriptures were conceived and written. Neyrey compares New Testament prayer and worship to contemporary works by classical authors, particularly Philo, the Didache, and a portion of Justina’s First Apology. Illuminating the New Testament text in their original light, this book focuses on interpretation rather than history, supplementing and enhancing the existing wealth of scholarship.

Reviewed by Tony Costa here.

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