Cancer and the Lord’s Prayer: Hope and Healing through History’s Greatest Prayer - Anderson, Greg. Jordan House (an imprint of Meredith Books), 2006. 95p. $9.95, hardcover. ISBN-10: 0-696-23256-1. ISBN-13: 978-0-696-23256-5. 616 Diseases—cancer. Prayer.

Greg Anderson explains that his book tells “what happens when ordinary Christians who are going through cancer decide to no longer settle for the rituals of their faith and instead reach out—and actually live out—the very real promises of Jesus.” He adds that it is “exactly the type of spiritual journey that God honors with many different kinds of healings, sometimes even cures.”

Twenty years ago, a few months after successful surgery for lung cancer, the author returned to the hospital faced with more cancer. This time his surgeon’s prognosis was stark: “Thirty days.” The hope and healing noted in Anderson’s subtitle resulted in his cure, his subsequent work with cancer patients, and this book.

Anderson admits that saying the Lord’s Prayer had become a ritual to which he gave little thought. One night, suffering depression and repeating the prayer automatically, Anderson heard it speak to him. That began his prayer treatment. He devotes a brief chapter to each of the prayer’s phrases and discusses its use and value as an instrument of healing. He discovered that one of the meanings of “hallowed” is “healing.”

The premise of Cancer and the Lord’s Prayer is not that every cancer patient will be physically healed but rather that some form of healing will occur. Not only those with cancer but those with other serious illness—few congregations are without at least one such member—may find help and comfort from this little volume.

Beverly M. Bixler
First Presbyterian Church
Ashland, Ohio