Honest questions. A living prayer.
Divine Echoes
Reconciling Prayer with the Uncontrolling Love of God
What if prayer invites us into a deeper partnership with God? Discover a compassionate, courageous way to pray—and to become part of the love our world is longing for.
For the questions we carry
When you still long to pray.
But the old answers fall short.
You have prayed for healing. For someone you love. For a world that hurts. And perhaps you have wondered: If God is already loving, what does asking God to act actually do?
Divine Echoes makes room for that question. Through personal stories, biblical reflection, and thoughtful theology, Mark Gregory Karris explores unanswered prayer and a practice he calls conspiring prayer.
Inside Divine Echoes
From honest questions
to a lived response.
Three movements. Nine chapters. A journey through what we believe about prayer and how those beliefs shape the way we live.
Ask the real questions.
Begin with lived experience and explore the mechanics of petitionary prayer: what are we asking, and how do we imagine prayer works?
Explore chapters 1–2
- My Journey Into Petitionary Prayer
- What Are the Mechanics of Prayer?
Examine what we inherit.
Consider the theological, experiential, and biblical tensions that emerge when our assumptions about prayer meet suffering and unanswered requests.
Explore chapters 3–5
- Unforeseen Theological and Philosophical Pitfalls of Petitionary Prayer
- Critical Empirical and Experiential Concerns About Petitionary Prayer
- Petitionary Prayer and the Bible
Practice a loving partnership.
Explore God’s uncontrolling love, the principles of conspiring prayer, and practical ways to join in the healing of an aching world.
Explore chapters 6–9
- God’s Perfect, Uncontrolling Love
- God’s Open-Door Policy
- Principles of Conspiring Prayer
- Conspiring Prayer in Action
A shift in perspective
From praying to God
to praying with God.
Conspiring prayer makes space to align our hearts with God’s heart, listen, and act together in love. Here is the contrast explored in the book.
Adapted from Mark Karris’s “Traditional Petitionary Prayer vs. Conspiring Prayer” comparison. The columns describe the contrast in this model, rather than every expression of petitionary prayer.
A practice to return to
Be still.
Be honest.
Become a partner.
Bring a person or situation to mind. Let these five movements guide you from presence and heartfelt prayer into a creative response of love.
Adapted from “Praying Conspiring Prayers” by Mark Karris.
Make room for presence.
Sit in silence and consent to the presence of God.
Remember the shape of love.
In a spirit of thankfulness, keep these things about God in mind:
- God’s love is uncontrolling.
- God is with you, within you, and already present with the person you are praying for.
- God intensely loves you and those you are praying for.
- God desires healing, wholeness, fairness, justice, and equality—and is moment-to-moment working toward those aims.
Keep it real.
Share your heart. Pray with God for the specific love, healing, and guidance you long to see in this person’s life or situation.
Ask how you can join in.
“God, how can I be your hands and feet in this person’s life or situation?”
Listen. Then live your prayer.
Listen for your creative mission and conspire with God. Consider the next loving step you can take.
Keep the conversation going
Read. Reflect. Practice together.
Companion resources for personal reflection, a book group, or your faith community.
Free companion PDF
The study guide
Make space to reflect on the book’s questions and explore them in conversation with others.
Open the study guideFree prayer resource
Prayers for the Journey
Explore the prayers appendix as a companion to your own practice of listening, reflection, and loving participation.
Open the prayers appendix
Meet the author
A personal question.
A deeply human invitation.
Mark Gregory Karris writes as a therapist, theologian, and ordained pastor. Divine Echoes grows out of his own experience of loss, unanswered prayer, and the search for a way of praying that honors both human suffering and God’s love.
More about MarkPraise for Divine Echoes
A conversation worth having.
Authors, theologians, and spiritual leaders reflect on the book.
Mark Karris asks the hard questions about prayer that many of us are afraid to ask. By appealing to both scripture and reason, he develops a new path forward, and illustrates it with practical applications involving situations we all face. If you struggle with petitionary prayer, as I do, you should really consider Karris's approach, whether or not you end up adopting it as your own.
Professor of philosophy, Morehead State University; author of Petitionary Prayer: A Philosophical Investigation
Mark Karris makes accessible some of the most important thinking going on in the theological community today about God's relationship to creation and the purposes of prayer. He will take you to a place where your prayers can be more honest, where God's love is completely trustworthy, and where you enter into a deep partnership with God.
Author of The Great Spiritual Migration
I think Mark Karris’ book is extremely important for the church to read and understand. His premise that God is a God of uncontrolling love is right on target. His critique of my prayer at the Democratic National Convention was also right on target. If I had thought the thoughts that he had eloquently set down in his book, I would have prayed differently.
Speaker, author, sociologist, pastor, and social activist
What an important work of spiritual guidance...Karris teaches, with his vividly inviting prose and wise theology
George T. Cobb Professor of Constructive Theology, Drew Theological School; author of On the Mystery: Discerning God in Process
Read 13 more endorsements
As a life-long intercessor who doesn't know how to pray (Rom. 8:26), I have nevertheless observed with Bishop Tutu that God does nothing in this world without a willing human partner. Mark Karris articulates this beautifully, developing a coherent theology and practice of petitionary prayer that honors the language of divine kenosis and human participation.
Author of A More Christlike God: A More Beautiful Gospel
This is one of the best books on prayer I have ever read.
Author of What is Prayer? How to Pray to God Like You Talk to a Friend
This is really a provocative and inspirational book!
Author, or co-author, of over forty books, including Praying with Process Theology: Spiritual Practices for Personal and Planetary Healing
This book should find a warm reception in congregational study-groups, seminaries and divinity schools, as well as with anyone genuinely interested in pursuing a deeper understanding of prayer.
Academic Dean and Regents’ Professor of Theology at Mount Angel Seminary; author of over eighteen publications, including Thinking About Prayer
His proposals may shock you, but good medicine can sometimes do that. I highly recommend Mark's book!
Author of The Uncontrolling Love of God and 20+ other books
In Divine Echoes, Mark Karris masterfully breaks down the myths and mechanisms of praying for divine intervention. Drawing on the idea of essential kenosis, Karris offers a model for petitionary prayer that is powered by the uncontrolling love of God and enacted through the libertarian free will given to humankind. Instead of merely praying to God and hoping that God acts, Karris enjoins the reader to pray with God, partnering with the good work God is already bringing about in the world.
Co-author of Praying for Justice: A Lectionary of Christian Concern
As a therapist and theologian Mark Karris is uniquely equipped to help us navigate perplexing questions about prayer... If you are skeptical or have given up on petitionary prayer, this book might help you renew your practice and see prayer in a whole new way.
Author of Belonging and Becoming and Practicing the Way of Jesus
Divine Echoes is an excellent and thought-provoking treatise on the topic of petitionary prayer! It is movingly written, well-researched, filled with down-to-earth anecdotes and gentle argumentation. Mark Karris speaks to the curious mind and the hungry heart, helping us enter into a sacred activity that helps complete our humanity and bring forth health, healing, and wholeness to the world.
Professor of Religion, Hendrix College; author of Replanting Ourselves in Beauty: Toward an Ecological Civilization
The personal and vulnerable stories shared, the compelling theological understanding of prayer presented, and a new and persuasive paradigm of petitionary prayer proposed makes this provocative book a work that belongs in everyone's library.
Associate Professor of Theology at Earlham School of Religion; author or editor of more than a dozen books, including Embracing the Other: The Transformative Spirit of Love
Petitionary prayer is one of the Christian hard knots to untangle, for not only does it seem that petitionary prayers frequently go unanswered, but we presume that God can and should step in and unilaterally make things right. Karris, in a very readable and provocative book, helpfully challenges petitioners to be the very hands and feet of God in the world, implementing his loving concern for all.
Professor Emeritus, Augsburg College; author of Divine Providence: God’s Love and Human Freedom
Mark Karris gives an important and practical lesson on prayer that will help us combine healing engagement in our broken world with honesty about who God is and how God works in the world. He impressively merges deep theology and practice.
Senior Professor of Peace Theology, Eastern Mennonite University; author of Embodying the Way of Jesus
I am impressed with both the religious depth and the theological sophistication of this passionate interpretation of prayer. Many other readers will also find this a most helpful meditation on the meaning and power of petitionary prayer.
Distinguished research professor, Georgetown University; author of Resting on the Future
Most of us ignore or explain away the difficulties in Christian belief and practice. It is refreshing to find someone courageous and honest enough to investigate one such problem, that of the validity and purpose of prayer for others. This is a book which all thinking Christians should read!
BA, MPhil, PGCertEd.; author of A Theology of Becoming
Let love have an echo.
A new way to pray.
A loving way to participate.
Explore Divine Echoes and discover what it might mean to listen with God—and carry that love into the world.