The North-West University (NWU), in collaboration with AOSIS – an open access publishing platform – recently released two volumes in the Reformed Theology in Africa series.

The books titled Biblical Theology of Prayer in the Old Testament and Biblical Theology of Prayer in the New Testament, have diligently been crafted by co-editors Prof Albert Coetsee and Prof Francois Viljoen from the NWU’s Faculty of Theology.

These volumes deal with the concept of prayer in the Old and New Testament. The first volume, Biblical Theology of Prayer in the Old Testament, aims to investigate prayer and its related elements, including worship, praise, thanksgiving, adoration, petition, intercession, lament and confession, on a book-by-book basis.

The New Testament volume – Biblical Theology of Prayer in the New Testament – begins with an introduction on prayer and worship in early Jewish tradition, followed by eleven chapters dealing with New Testament corpora. It concludes with a final chapter synthesising the findings of the respective investigations of the Old and New Testament corpora.

According to Prof Coetsee, various recorded and reported prayers exist across diverse books, corpora and genres, while a comprehensive Biblical theology centred on the concept of prayer in Scripture has been conspicuously absent. These books aim to bridge this gap.

Prof Viljoen and Prof Coetsee are also exploring potential future research projects in this fascinating realm.