I once met a prominent Christian—a Reformed Baptist theologian, even—who admitted something to me that sounded almost scandalous: He doesn’t care for The Pilgrim’s Progress. He read it as a student, he re-read it as an adult, and it just didn’t do much for him. And with that in view, here’s a confession of my own: I don’t really care for The Valley of Vision, that collection of Puritan prayers collected by Arthur Bennett. There are undoubtedly a few jewels in the collection, but most of the prayers just haven’t resonated with me. I set aside the book years ago and have only rarely returned to it.
It is probably for that reason that I approached Piercing Heaven: Prayers of the Puritans with a bit of skepticism. This collection was assembled by Robert Elmer and is similar in that it brings together edited prayers from various Puritan authors. But to my mind, these prayers are often far superior to the ones in The Valley of Vision. Why? I don’t think I can quite say, except that they are less poetic and, therefore, perhaps a little more “normal” or accessible. These are prayers that I can comfortably pray privately
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