Liz Cooledge Jenkins is a writer, a former college campus minister, and the creator of @postevangelicalprayers on Instagram, where she has written and shared over 250 original prayers that affirm the humanity, agency, and wisdom of all people. Cooledge Jenkins holds an MDiv from Fuller Theological Seminary and is the author of Nice Churchy Patriarchy: Reclaiming Womens Humanity from Evangelicalism. Her work has been featured in Sojourners, The Christian Century, and Ms. Magazine. She lives in the Seattle area.
Description
Contents
Introduction: Prayer After Evangelicalism
Chapter 1: Praying Like a Kid (Minus the Infantilization)
Chapter 2: Praying Like a Teenager (Big Feelings, Big Insecurities)
Chapter 3: Why Is it So Hard to Be Honest?
Chapter 4: "Pray the Depression Away" (and other things I no longer believe in)
Chapter 5: Hearing from God: When Its Awesome
Chapter 6: Hearing from God: When Its Complicated
Chapter 7: Hearing from God: When Were Just Plain Wrong
Chapter 8: Hearing from God: When All We Hear Is Crickets
Chapter 9: When There Is No Peace: Lament as Prayer
Chapter 10: More Than "Thoughts and Prayers": Protest as Prayer
Chapter 11: "A Little Convicted": Reimagining Confession and Repentance
Chapter 12: "All the Children Are Well": Prayer Ushers in Shalom
Chapter 13: "That Prayer Sucked": The Beauty (and the Complications) of Praying Together
Chapter 14: Praying While Female
Chapter 15: Praying While White
Chapter 16: Praying While Mortal
Chapter 17: The Seas Raise Their Voices: Prayer in a Time of Climate Crisis
Chapter 18: Too Deep for Words: Possibilities for Prayer Beyond Speech
Chapter 19: When God Says "Go to Bed": Rest as Prayer
Chapter 20: God of the Too-Small Things
Chapter 21: Two Red Roses: Theres More to God
Chapter 22: We All Need Some Blessed Reassurance
Chapter 23: Becoming Fearless: Confidence and Calling
Chapter 24: Speaking Good Into Being
Closing Words
Acknowledgments
"Maybe We Could Pray Again grips the proverbial baton passed by Richard Fosters Prayer and runs it forward. Packed with personal stories and practical insights, Jenkins ministers to the souls of disillusioned deconstructionists groping for connection with God in the wilderness of disoriented faith. This book is for readers yearning to reconnect with the sacred in ways that take seriously the profane." --Lisa Sharon Harper, author of several books, including her critically acclaimed The Very Good Gospel and Fortune: How Race Broke My Family and the World-and How to Repair It All
"Prayer-in the traditional evangelical sense-is often one of the first things we feel weve lost when we begin untangling ourselves from a faith that no longer reflects who we are or who we believe God to be. If we change, why shouldnt our prayers change too? In this accessible, compassionate, and much-needed guide, Jenkins invites readers to rediscover prayer beyond the walls of certainty, embracing a practice that is expansive, holistic, and rooted in an ever-evolving relationship with the Divine." --Kat Armas, theologian, speaker, and author of Abuelita Faith and Liturgies for Resisting Empire
"This is the book that ex-evangelicals who want to remain Christian have been looking for. Weve all done plenty of deconstruction in recent years, but Jenkins helps us sift through the rubble and imagine what comes next. She takes the reader along on her own journey to rediscover and redefine a core Christian practice outside an evangelical context and in the face of new challenges, drawing inspiration from a broad swath of traditions. Even the spiritually cynical and exhausted will end up considering that, yes, maybe we could pray again." --Holly Berkley Fletcher, PhD, author of The Missionary Kids
"Some books give answers. This one offers something far more valuable: permission. Permission to question, to grieve, to wonder, to heal, and to discover that prayer can still belong to us even after our beliefs have shifted and expanded. Liz Jenkins has written a beautiful, compassionate guide for anyone seeking a more honest relationship with God, themselves, and the world around them." --Esther Joy Goetz, spiritual director, author, and host of the Deconstructing Mamas podcast
"If prayer has become a problem for you, read this book." --David Hayward, artist and author of Flip It Like This! and The Rainbow Sheep
"Liz Cooledge Jenkins doesnt pretend prayer is easy after deconstruction-she sits with all the reasons it isnt and continues to insist we can reach for God anyway. Maybe We Could Pray Again holds the grief of losing your prayer life as it was and opens up the possibilities of finding connection with God again. Its wider than petition, deeper than certainty, and more honest than what you might have learned in Sunday school." --Chelsea Kim Long, author of Faithfully Dissident Daughters
"I look around and see so many people who are completely exhausted by rigid religious systems, struggling to sift through the wreckage of an inherited faith theyve had to break apart. Liz Cooledge Jenkins is the guide we need right now. This book is a raw, honest field manual for making our way through that disorienting wilderness, helping us untangle prayer from spiritual harm and reclaim it as an urgent space for collective justice and true liberation." --Doug Pagitt, pastor, activist, and author of many books including A Christianity Worth Believing