Every Eye Beholds You: A World Treasury of Prayer

Craughwell, a consultant to Sophia Institute Press and a contributor to Commonweal magazine, presents a collection of prayers from the world's religious traditions, including Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, indigenous American and African religions and ancient faiths. Craughwell has organized the prayers into chapters according to their general purpose or occasion, for example, ""Prayers of Yearning for the Divine,"" ""Prayers of War and Peace"" and ""Blessings on the Earth and Its People."" Each prayer appears under its name or title (e.g., the Lord's Prayer), followed by a sentence or paragraph of comment on it or its author. Many prayers, especially Jewish, ancient Christian and Islamic, appear both in English and their original language, whether Latin, Arabic, Hebrew or Greek, transliterated into the modern Roman alphabet. Small black-and-white drawings by Christopher Russell accompany many prayers. This collection is a fine resource for anyone genuinely interested in the nature of prayer or seeking insight into the human impulse to worship, though it is a book for browsing rather than for reading straight through. At the close of the volume, the prayers are indexed by religious tradition and first line. Karen Armstrong, author of A History of God, has provided a helpful introduction. BOMC, QPB main selections. (Oct.)