Paradise Now: Living the Lord's Prayer
About this ebook
“Highly literate treatment of a vital element in the Christian tradition.” —Kirkus Reviews
“To be read and savored.” —Miroslav Volf, professor of theology at Yale University and author of The Cost of Ambition and co-author of Life Worth Living
"Paradise Now is both inspiring and inspired!” —Fr. Richard Rohr, O.F.M., Center for Action and Contemplation, author of New York Times bestseller The Tears of Things: Prophetic Wisdom For an Age of Outrage
An acclaimed, award-winning, and best-selling poet, novelist, and critic turns his poetic and literary eye to the most famous prayer in human history.
For Christians, the Lord’s Prayer stands at the heart of both belief and practice. It offers a brief yet profound window into Jesus at prayer, and it continues to guide those who follow in his way. In this close, meditative, and far‐reaching reading—drawn from the slightly different versions found in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke—Parini brings to bear his formidable gifts as poet, critic, and teacher.
Moving line by line, Parini unpacks the depth and resonance of this fabled prayer, illuminating its layers of meaning and the many ways it reveals the nature of God. In doing so, he considers what it truly means to live the Lord’s Prayer: to lean into its words, inhabit them, and allow them to shape one’s character and daily practice of faith and reconciliation.
Parini—whose distinguished career has been recognized with major honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship—draws on his mastery as poet, critic, and novelist to emphasize the prayer’s lived dimension. He helps readers experience it not simply as a sacred text, but as a transformative way of being.
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About the author
Jay Parini is the author of acclaimed biographies of John Steinbeck, Robert Frost, William Faulkner, Jesus, and Gore Vidal. His eight novels include Benjamin’s Crossing, The Damascus Road, The Passages of H.M., and The Last Station, the latter of which was made into an Academy Award-nominated film. His nonfiction works include The Art of Teaching, Why Poetry Matters, Promised Land: Thirteen Books that Changed America, and The Way of Jesus. His most recent book, Borges and Me: An Encounter, has been filmed. He graduated from both Lafayette College and the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, where he received a Ph.D., and he is a faculty member of Middlebury College. Parini lives in Weybridge, Vermont.
