Alva F. Hohl, Jr. is a retired United Church of Christ pastor having served over 40 years in UCC congregations in northern Iowa and northwest Indiana. He received his bachelor’s degree in English from Elmhurst College in Elmhurst, Illinois, a Master of Divinity from Eden Theological Seminary in Webster Groves, Missouri, and a Doctor of Ministry from United Theological Seminary in New Brighton, Minnesota. In his retirement, Rev. Hohl has written a series of published essays entitled Picking Up the Pieces: When Faith and Culture Collide published by Dorrance Press. When not researching and writing, he crafts furniture in his woodshop. He is an avid sports enthusiast (a fan of the Iowa Hawkeyes, Chicago Cubs, and the Green Bay Packers), enjoys fishing, as well as walking and bicycling with his wife, Carole. He has been told that story-telling is one of his strengths—a strength shared liberally in his writing. Hohl and his late wife, Kathy, are the parents of two adult children (Carolyn and Nathan) and the grandfather of four. Actually, it’s seven if you include Carole’s 3 amazing grandchildren. He and Carole live in Huntington, Indiana.
The Heart of Prayer
Seeking the Sure Reign of God
by Alva Hohl
The Heart of Prayer
Seeking the Sure Reign of God
by Alva Hohl
Published Oct 20, 2019
288 Pages
Genre: RELIGION / Prayer
Book Details
The question about prayer for the person of faith and for those who are struggling with their faith is not “What is prayer?” Not everyone, but many have an idea about that. The question is why do we pray; toward what end do we offer prayers to God? The first petition of the Lord’s Prayer—“thy kin-dom come on earth as it is in heaven”—has become for me the foundational biblical assertion that answers the question of why. That petition points us to the reality of God’s reign for creation in general and humankind in particular and has given us the model for all of our prayers and praying as we, too, attempt to embrace the vision of God’s kin-dom on earth. Prayer becomes the means to an end. That end is the hoped-for reign of God on earth. This volume is an attempt to explore this claim through the eyes of the biblical story tellers who wanted to know in their own times what it meant to live toward the hope of God’s sure reign in their lives. Such exploration then asks us, the readers, to connect the ancient story of faith to the stories we live and share in this part of the 21st century.