"Prayer is real religion," said Auguste Sabatier. If so, the academic study of prayer allows scholars to examine the very heart of religious practices, beliefs, and convictions. Since prayers exist in a wide variety of content, contexts, forms, and practices, a comprehensive approach to the study of prayer is required. Therefore, this volume includes scholars from a wide range of disciplines, in order to discover the breadth of "real religion" from the first to the fifteenth centuries. This volume especially focuses upon the history of Christianity and monasticism, where prayer was the school of hope, faith, and critical thought, awakening the faithful to every aspect of religious and daily life.Contributors are L. Edward Phillips, Karlfried Froehlich, Michael Joseph Brown, David W. Fagerberg, Columba Stewart, Benedicta Ward, Susan Boynton, Corey Barnes, Johannes Heil, Rik Van Nieuwenhove, Roger S. Wieck, Paul W. Robinson and Roy Hammerling.