Maybe We Could Pray Again releases on March 16th, 2027.
Pre-order now!
Book description:
“I haven’t given up on God, but I just don’t know how to pray anymore.”
If you’ve stepped away from evangelical Christianity–or are quietly questioning it–you may still feel a tug toward prayer, even as the old words, habits, scripts, and formulas no longer work. Maybe We Could Pray Again is written for anyone asking: How do I pray now?
Writer and self-described “recovering evangelical” Liz Cooledge Jenkins unpacks her own experiences of prayer in the evangelical world–the good, the bad, and the weird. And she invites you to gently and courageously reimagine prayer as something bigger, freer, and more honest than what you were taught. This is not a guide to doing prayer “right,” and it’s not an argument for certainty. Instead, it’s a companion for disorienting times that makes room for anger, grief, doubt, exhaustion, joy, protest, and hope.
You’ll explore prayer as lament when there is no peace, as resistance in the face of injustice, as rest in a world obsessed with productivity, and as connection when God feels silent. Drawing on expansive readings of Scripture, lived experience, and the wisdom of women, queer thinkers, and people of color, Cooledge Jenkins affirms what you may already sense: that prayer does not belong to harmful systems or authoritarian power structures.
Maybe We Could Pray Again meets you exactly where you are and affirms that where you are on your journey is good. If you long for a spirituality rooted in justice, tenderness, and deep freedom, this book offers a simple, hopeful invitation: Prayer is still available to you–and prayer might still surprise you.
Praise for Maybe We Could Pray Again
“If prayer has become a problem for you, read this book.”
-David Hayward, the NakedPastor, artist and author of Flip It Like This! and The Rainbow Sheep
“Maybe We Could Pray Again grips the proverbial baton passed by Richard Foster’s Prayer and runs it forward. Packed with personal stories and practical insights, Cooledge Jenkins ministers to the souls of disillusioned deconstructionists groping for connection with God in the wilderness of disoriented faith. This book is for readers yearning to reconnect with the sacred in ways that take seriously the profane.”
-Lisa Sharon Harper, author of several books, including her critically acclaimed The Very Good Gospel and Fortune: How Race Broke My Family and the World―and How to Repair It All
“Prayer―in the traditional evangelical sense―is often one of the first things we feel we’ve lost when we begin untangling ourselves from a faith that no longer reflects who we are or who we believe God to be. If we change, why shouldn’t our prayers change too? In this accessible, compassionate, and much-needed guide, Cooledge Jenkins invites readers to rediscover prayer beyond the walls of certainty, embracing a practice that is expansive, holistic, and rooted in an ever-evolving relationship with the Divine.”
-Kat Armas, theologian, speaker, and author of Abuelita Faith and Liturgies for Resisting Empire
“Liz Cooledge Jenkins doesn’t pretend prayer is easy after deconstruction―she sits with all the reasons it isn’t and continues to insist we can reach for God anyway. Maybe We Could Pray Again holds the grief of losing your prayer life as it was and opens up the possibilities of finding connection with God again. It’s wider than petition, deeper than certainty, and more honest than what you might have learned in Sunday school.”
-Chelsea Kim Long, author of Faithfully Dissident Daughters
“This is the book that ex-evangelicals who want to remain Christian have been looking for. We’ve all done plenty of deconstruction in recent years, but Jenkins helps us sift through the rubble and imagine what comes next. She takes the reader along on her own journey to rediscover and redefine a core Christian practice outside an evangelical context and in the face of new challenges, drawing inspiration from a broad swath of traditions. Even the spiritually cynical and exhausted will end up considering that, yes, maybe we could pray again.”
-Holly Berkley Fletcher, PhD, author of The Missionary Kids