‘Other Prayers of Jesus’ represents the third volume in the ‘Other’ trilogy by John Henson. Like volumes one and two, ‘Other Prayers’ opens up a new and alternative way of understanding an important item of Christian spirituality. Just as traditional Christianity has made heavy weather of temptation to sin, and sought to use Holy Communion as a means of excluding the unworthy, so prayer has been made unnecessarily difficult and challenging for the believer, thereby setting a limit to the number of ‘saints’.

This call to adventure and freedom in the name of Jesus is a substantial work that follows the career of Jesus as portrayed in the gospels, showing the part that ‘talking with God’ (as the author prefers to call prayer) plays in the development of Jesus’ ministry, in particular his inclusion of the outsider. Three important strains in Jesus’ life of prayer are identified, namely ‘reflection’, ‘contemplation’ and ‘meditation’, with an examination of all the occasions on which the gospel writers picture Jesus in prayer.