When God Talks Back

My favorite anthropologist, Tanya Luhrmann, always has fascinating insights about how people come to believe what they believe. In this book, she argues that today’s Christian converts—much like the medieval saints I write about—must learn the art of prayer through intentional training.

We often think of praying as a solitary pursuit, but she demonstrates that this spiritual discipline can only be taught and learned in community. Luhrmann uses both in-depth interviews and ingenious scientific experiments to explore how this happens.