Epistolary Prayer in the Apostolic Fathers: With Commentary on the Greek Text

Description

This book examines the prayer texts in the collection of ancient documents known as the Apostolic Fathers, written during the early second century. 

The book begins with an overview of the Apostolic Fathers and of the prayers found therein. Appendices include every prayer passage in the nine documents. The core of the book explores the function of prayer in the letters of the collection (1 Clement, The Letter of Ignatius, Polycarp to the Philippians, and the Martyrdom of Polycarp). Each letter includes an introduction (authorship, date, form, genre, sources, purpose, and theme), followed by a brief commentary on every prayer passage. The prayers are categorized by type: benedictions, doxologies, exhortations to prayer, petitions, prayer-reports, wish prayers, and references to the practice of prayer. The book closes with a brief summary of the function of epistolary prayer in the Apostolic Fathers.

The second edition adds new analysis and includes the Greek (or Latin) and English text of every prayer passage in the letters. (The eBook version contains only the English translations.)

Markus McDowell is an author & editor of fiction and nonfiction in multiple genres. He has a Ph.D. from Fuller Theological Seminary and a law degree from the University of London, and has lectured at universities in the US, Europe, and the UK.  He is the author of the literary novel, To and Fro Upon the Earth: A Novel, an historical novel, Onesimus: A Novel of Christianity in the Roman Empire, and research works such as Prayers of Jewish Women: Studies of Patterns of Prayer in the Second Temple Period and Prayer in the Ancient Stoic Tradition.