New Book Release: “Praying with the Torah”
By Alissa Dedic July 2, 2024
“My hope was that, by entering into the story and allowing it to shape us, I would become more comfortable with prayer and have a much deeper understanding of it. That is exactly what it did.” R.A. Sweeney
At Elk Creek Content, it is my pleasure to share author interviews when the books I have edited with authors are published. I hope this will be the first of many author interviews to come.
R.A. Sweeney, an independent author, released “Praying with the Torah” on May 23, 2024. “Praying with the Torah” is the first book in the “Praying with the Bible Series.”
I met with Sweeney on May 29, 2024 to learn more about his writing process and his experience with the publishing process.
How long have you been writing or when did you start to write?
I started writing “Praying with the Torah” in 2020, I think, though at the time it was not a book. I was in charge of trying to keep my church’s prayer meetings happening while the world shut down for COVID. Rather than trying to gather (since we were asked not to by health officials), I began a weekly email to the church with a short devotional and call to prayer, along with prayer requests and praises from the church. This quickly morphed into a prayer-by-prayer journey through the Scriptures beginning in Genesis 1.
I actually began my first book writing project in 2023 as a way of sorting through the message of the Bible for myself. In about six months, I sorted out a contextualized understanding of the Bible, cover to cover. I didn’t intend to write more than that and didn’t even know if I wanted to publish it. My wife actually suggested, since I was beginning to write that other project, that I compile the case studies I had already written into a collection and try to publish it. That set me off to the races. I have been writing ever since.
How surprised are you that you started writing?
I am very surprised that I have taken to writing. I never had enjoyed writing before and didn’t ever think of myself as someone who would do much with writing. I started because I needed to work out some things, and God pulled me in head first.
“I can remember a time when I was driving, and I was trying to piece all of this information together with the Gospel. I realized I couldn’t. I knew that I belonged to Jesus, but I could not put to words what that meant or how I would explain what the Gospel is. It was so disorienting that I almost needed to pull over. That settled it. I needed to sort things out and to me that needed to be done on paper. So I wrote a book.” R.A. Sweeney
Why did you consider writing a book?
The first book I wrote (yet to be published) was something I needed to do for me. I had spent months in really intense study of Hebrew and Greek language, cultural context, the understandings of the various branches of Christian Churches throughout the world and how the books of the Bible went together. I had collected a huge amount of data, but it was largely disjointed because I was studying scholars and each one seemed to have their niche focus or had only addressed certain areas. I needed to piece all of this together in order to understand how it all fit together.
I can remember a time when I was driving, and I was trying to piece all this information together with the Gospel. I realized I couldn’t. I knew that I belonged to Jesus, but I could not put to words what that meant or how I would explain what the Gospel is. It was so disorienting that I almost needed to pull over. That settled it. I needed to sort things out and to me that needed to be done on paper. So I wrote a book.
As for why I considered writing “Praying with the Torah,” I had been working through the Bible for a few years on this project. I recognized that there was nothing like it available. Most prayer books either talk about principles of prayer or lead people through scripted prayers. What I had already put together (only not in a book) was a collection of case studies looking at how the Bible presents prayer. It wasn’t a list of principles. It wasn’t my top 10 list or my reflections on how prayer has blessed me. It was a collection of the prayers in the Bible and a look at how the Bible wanted to shape us through those prayers. I figured the world needed its practices of prayer to be shaped by God’s words more and by people’s perspectives less.
Did you translate many of the passages in this book yourself? How long ago did you start to learn Hebrew? What interested you in learning Hebrew?
I actually did not do much translating for “Praying with the Torah.” Translation is something I have been diving deeper and deeper into with each book. “Praying with the Book of Praises” will be the first book based entirely on my own translation. For “Praying with the Torah,” I did look at the Hebrew language behind the words.
I have had a curiosity in Hebrew language for several years. It has always struck me as an important thing since the Bible is written in Hebrew and we even leave Hebrew words in our translations in places. It doesn’t take long to figure out that the Hebrew names and places carry significance to the story, so I wanted to learn more. The entire Bible is written in Hebrew. Even though parts are recorded using Greek or Aramaic words, the ideas are Hebrew. Almost every author of the Bible was a Hebrew man who grew up in the Hebrew culture and spoke the Hebrew language. So, when they wrote Greek, they still were thinking in Hebrew. I figured that if I wanted to understand any of the Bible, knowing the Hebrew background was going to be critical.
I didn’t really start to teach myself Hebrew until 2023. At that point I was so hungry to dig deeper than the bits and pieces I was getting in study that I began to actually try to learn the language, not just miscellaneous vocabulary. I think it has been immensely valuable.
What part of the book was most fun to write?
Honestly, the best part was looking at the Scriptures in a different way. I cannot say that I had ever really studied prayer before I started this project. I have never heard of anyone doing a comprehensive look at how prayer is portrayed in the Bible. It was interesting to comb the text with an eye on prayer and see how the Bible itself develops the idea of prayer. A lot of passages took on new light when looking specifically at the prayers.
What part of the book did you have the hardest time writing?
There have been a few things that were challenging. A few places were difficult to discern exactly what was going on in the passage or what the passage was trying to communicate. That took a lot of study and prayer to sort out some of those passages. The other thing that was difficult was that several passages seemed redundant. I don’t think anything is in the Bible by accident or without purpose, but it was sometimes difficult to find nuance in prayers, which seemed like ones we had seen previously. There was one place where someone prayed and later the story of that person praying was retold, including the prayer. After studying the retold prayer, I couldn’t find any difference in the retelling than the original prayer. I found that God was using the redundancy to make a point, but I did not feel it contributed to helping us grow in prayer. That is the only prayer I did not address, because I didn’t feel able to address it the second time with anything new.
How would you describe “Praying with the Torah”?
I often say that God gave us the Bible so that He could shape us back into His image as we sit in the Bible’s story. We always want to pull principles out of the Bible in order to figure out what to do or how to be. But really I think we are just supposed to spend time in the story. We are meant to reflect on it and chew on it and simply be in it. Praying with the Torah takes that principle and applies it to prayer. As you go through the book, you are invited to enter the context and simply experience it. Some case studies have points, but I tried to bring you into the story and encourage you to pray in light of the story. This book is like an immersion program for prayer—you bury yourself in the prayers the Bible presents and find that it makes you better at prayer through the experience.
What kind of research tools did you use as you wrote “Praying with the Torah”?
Personally I like lexicons and concordances. Most people I talk to seem to love reading commentaries for study. I find the lexicons and concordances usually give me more clarity. That said I do use commentaries as well, I just enjoy the other resources more. Blue Letter Bible is my favorite resource. I know a lot of people love Logos software, but I love that Blue Letter Bible has a ton of functionality and is free for the public. That is why I support them—because I like the idea of all of those tools being available to everyone for free.
How important was professional editing to your book’s development?
I cannot begin to explain how important professional editing was for this book. English was always one of my least favorite subjects, so I am not great at grammar, punctuation and things like that. Using a professional editor addressed everything I knew I was doing wrong but also helped me with a ton of things I didn’t even know I needed to know. Going through the editing process on this project has made my next projects better too.
What does your writing process look like?
My process looks different depending on what I am writing. For these books on prayer, I start reading until I come to a prayer and then explore the context of the prayer. I look for interesting word choice or repeated ideas. I look for references to other passages of Scripture. I really try to work out what the person offering the prayer would be going through and how God would view the prayer.
For other projects, I might spend time translating the original language into English to get a feel for word choice and the sound of the text. I might dump out a mind full of ideas on paper and start making outlines. I might list out beginning and ending points and then map a road from end to end. It really just depends on the topic and on how much planning I need. I am always planning things and thinking things through.
Do you have a favorite writing place?
I have a desk at home that is my favorite place to write. I have a few screens so I can look things up and cross reference well. I have books and things surrounding me to get what I need quickly. And I have a gorgeous view out the windows looking into the Wyoming mountains. I can watch the sun rise over the mountain, watch clouds blow through the canyons, watch eagles hunting and hear children playing. It is an awesome spot.
How long did it take you, from start to finish, to write “Praying with the Torah”? Including time spent studying and researching.
“Praying with the Torah” took a while. The entire book was part of weekly prayer ministry. I wrote one case study each week and had several distractions and sidebars along the way. Overall I think it took me about a year and a half to develop it. Then organizing it into a book and editing took another few months since I was juggling it with other things.
How has “Praying with the Torah” changed your experience with prayer?
This book actually did what I hoped it would. My hope was that, by entering into the story and allowing it to shape us, I would become more comfortable with prayer and have a much deeper understanding of it. That is exactly what it did. It helped me understand how to pray and how not to. It opened up different methods and styles of prayer. It showed different types of prayers for different types of circumstances. It helped demonstrate what faithful prayer looks like and showed me ways in which my own prayers were not faithful. Truly it helped me to get prayer more.
Is this a series? How many more books will there be?
This is the first book in the “Praying with the Bible Series.” I have gone back and forth between seven and eight books, but I think seven will be the final count. “Praying with the Torah” is out now, and I am hoping to have “Praying with the Former Prophets” out by Christmas. I have completed writing “Praying with the Latter Prophets” and “Praying with the Book of Praises” (There is already a book called “Praying with the Psalms.”) and hope to have them out in 2025. I will also have “Praying with the Writings,” “Praying with the Gospels,” and “Praying with the Epistles” coming out. My plan is put out two per year, with “Praying with the Epistles” coming out in the summer of 2027.
How did you celebrate finishing and publishing “Praying with the Torah”?
I am a Bible nerd, so I rewarded myself by working on another project. I have used book writing like many people use Bible studies. Just like you might be excited to explore a new topic in the Bible as you finish up the one you are working on, I get excited about the next book I get to research. I celebrated finishing this book by moving into making my own translation of the Psalms.
Do you have any other books published?
I have one other book, “Prayers from the Time of Jesus,” that is published at the moment that I made with my wife. It is a collection of prayers the early church would have prayed during the first century or two on either side of Jesus’ lifetime. I translated the prayers myself and set them beside photos of Wyoming’s outdoor landscapes. We originally designed it as a hardcover coffee table book but also created a paperback that fits right next to your Bible to take on the go and an e-book version as well. It welcomes you into experiencing how beautiful and poetic the prayers of the early church were.
I also have another book, “The Shoot of Jesse,” coming out this fall. I wrote an advent study for my wife’s Christmas present this year. It loosely follows the Jesse Tree model and presents 25 short Bible stories, so you can read one each day leading to Christmas. It is written for all ages and tells the story of Jesus as the King of all creation, from creation through resurrections. There will also be options to buy accompanying ornaments and free templates to make your own ornaments. If all goes well, it will be available in time to use this Christmas season.
What books do you enjoy reading?
I am all over the place. I don’t typically love historical biography, but I recently read Corrie Ten Boom’s “The Hiding Place” and loved it. I wouldn’t say I love fantasy, but Tolkien’s works are some of my absolute favorites. I recently finished a book about a man’s journey from Islam to Christianity. I think I listened to “Till We Have Faces” three times last year. I loved “Out of the Silent Planet” but wanted to throw “Perelandra” in the trash. I don’t think I have a “type” of book I like. I will try a lot of different types and only like some.
Are there any books or authors who inspired you to become a writer?
Honestly no. God kind of pushed me down a hill, and I found myself writing by the time I hit the bottom, so I cannot say any author made me want to write. That said I do stand on the shoulders of giants. I tend to lean on a handful of biblical scholars as resources.
What book or books are you currently reading?
Right now, I am reading Ovid’s “Metamorphoses.” I cannot stress enough how valuable this book is to understanding the Bible. It helps understand the cultural context of the Bible and also gives more vivid pictures of certain things the Bible assumes the reader already knows. It has been phenomenal.
I am also really excited to start a book on Buddhism in order to learn more about their culture so that I might better speak into the lives of others.
I just finished having my 7-year-old son read me the entire book of Psalms. There are few things greater than having your child hungry to read you the Bible.
How long have you been teaching about the Bible and why did you start?
Much of my professional career has involved training and teaching. It is something that has always come very naturally to me. Once I began walking with the Lord, it was not long before the Bible study I attended became the Bible study I lead. God continues to put opportunities at my feet for me to teach His message, so I keep walking into them.
What hobbies do you enjoy when you aren’t writing?
I grew up in Wyoming, which means you have to love the outdoors. I find myself hunting something or other for about seven to eight months out of the year, mostly because it is a great excuse to go for beautiful hikes in all kinds of places I wouldn’t go otherwise. Like any other Wyoming man, I fish, hike and camp. I also have a DYI house, so I am always fixing up or working on something with the house. I tend to spend more time listening to audiobooks than reading physical books because I often have my hands occupied with mindless work. In that way painting, a room is also an opportunity to listen to a book.
Where can readers find “Praying with the Torah” and connect with you online?
The hardcover, paperback and e-book are all available wherever you order books. Whether you like Amazon.com or a local bookstore, you should be able to order it. Bookstores can also request, through the Ingram network to carry the book, so if you enjoy the book encourage your local bookstores to carry it.
The same is true for “Prayers from the Time of Jesus”—you can order it anywhere, and you can encourage your bookstore to carry it through the Ingram network.
I am finalizing my website as we speak, but for right now you can connect with me through Facebook. I have an author Facebook page for R.A. Sweeney, as well as a page dedicated solely to the “Praying with the Bible Series.”
“But really, I think we are just supposed spend time in the story. We are meant to reflect on it and chew on it and simply be in it. This is what changes us from the inside out. Praying with the Torah takes that principle and applies it to prayer.” R.A. Sweeney
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