Our Father Who Aren’t in Heaven

Book excerpt: The Lord's Prayer holds an honored place in the worship and devotional practices of countless Christians around the world. People of every ethnic background, denominational affiliation, and theological leaning pray to "Our Father who art in heaven." But what if there's more to it than we think? Our Father Who Aren't in Heaven takes a decidedly this-worldly approach to the prayer, and seeks to understand what Jesus meant to teach his original disciples--and us--through this radical manifesto of the kingdom of God. In these pages, Robert S. Turner presents a political reading of the prayer and explores how we can encounter through it a God who has left the divine hammock empty and cast God's lot with humanity and the rest of creation. A renewed understanding of the prayer may have the capacity to transform the world. These subversive reflections on the Lord's Prayer may have the capacity to transform the reader as well.