cover image Pray Like a Gourmet: Creative Ways to Feed Your Soul

Pray Like a Gourmet: Creative Ways to Feed Your Soul

David Brazzeal. Paraclete, $18.99 trade paper (192p) ISBN 978-1-61261-627-8

Brazzeal (Now Paul, He was a Servant) has written a cookbook for prayer—literally. After a first section that likens learning to pray to learning to cook and also notes the importance of food in the Bible, the author, who lives in Paris, divides the book into sections. Instead of soups, salads, sides, main courses, and desserts, these sections cover different types of prayer, such as thanksgiving, confessing, and asking, complete with “recipes.” Thus “praising” prayers, which are likened to hors d’oeuvre, contain “recipes” that call for praying by writing down all the verbs in Psalm 147 or by creating a physical movement that opens you to God. Likewise, recipes for “blessing” prayers include visualizing a friend in a setting that represents well-being and joy. The book’s voice is exuberant and the cookbook idea clever and appealing. Rather than a tome to be read and forgotten, the volume is formatted as a resource to keep handy, maybe even among cookbooks. The book might benefit from less autobiography and even more recipes, but it’s still a delectable read, supplemented by tasty quotes from Christian sages. (Apr.)