The key to prayer is "not our action in preparing ourselves, but God's action in revealing himself," writes Dr. Donald G. Bloesch of Dubuque Theological Seminary. True prayer is not humanity rising to God in order to become one with him (the mystical ideal), but God reaching out to humanity and calling for a response of obedience. It is the constant struggle to take hold of the outstretched hand of God. This striving with a personal God is foundational to biblical prayer, stresses Dr. Bloesch. In "The Struggle of Prayer," he outlines an evangelical spirituality that has at its heart the "outpouring of the soul before a living God."

• Prayer