Podcast Summary: Daniel K. Falk and Rodney A. Werline, "Prayer in the Ancient World Vol.1" (Brill, 2027)

Podcast: New Books Network
Host: Caleb Zakrin
Guest: Daniel K. Falk, co-editor
Date: December 17, 2025

Overview of Main Theme

This episode features an in-depth discussion with Daniel K. Falk, co-editor of Prayer in the Ancient World Vol. 1, an ambitious, multi-volume, interdisciplinary work cataloguing and analyzing prayer practices across the ancient Near East and Mediterranean. Falk explains the origins, methodology, and scholarly goals of the project, which aims to offer a comprehensive, cross-cultural resource for understanding how ancient peoples communicated with the divine. The conversation traverses definitions of prayer, unique findings, editorial logistics, and the enduring relevance of prayer studies today.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. How Daniel Falk Became a Scholar of Prayer

• Academic Journey: Falk is originally from Canada, pursued Biblical Studies, and later completed his PhD at Cambridge, where he was drawn to the underexplored field of early Jewish prayer.
• Discovery in Dead Sea Scrolls: The realization that "the most important source would be the Dead Sea Scrolls, because there we actually have what we can call liturgical prayers of the community" (06:11) shifted his focus, highlighting a historical transition from spontaneous, individual prayer (as in the Hebrew Bible) to communal, regulated rituals (as in the Mishnah).
• Quote:

  "In the Hebrew Bible, there's no laws about prayer... But there's no laws for prayer. And yet, if you jump forward to the Mishnah... it begins with a law about prayer..." (04:14, Falk)

2. The Challenge of Defining Prayer

• Diverse Manifestations: Falk underscores that definitions in scholarship are often text-focused and too narrow.
• Broad, Inclusive Definition:

  "For the purpose of this project, we're regarding prayer as any human act of communication with intent to solicit, benefit from or connection with a superhuman agent. And this is intentionally very ambiguous." (09:56, Falk)

• Inclusivity: Allows for non-verbal, meditative acts, prayers directed to natural elements or ancestors—not just deities.

3. The Logistics of Editing a Monumental Project

• Collaboration Roots: Falk and co-editor Rodney Werline recognized, after earlier projects, the lack of shared assumptions and language in prayer studies—even within closely related traditions.
• Editorial Structure: The project boasts "15 area editors" and "well over a hundred contributors," covering 4,000 years and a dozen languages (13:47, Falk).
• Quote:

  "Absolutely nobody is expert in all of this stuff...it's been really helpful to get together experts from a vast range of languages and cultures..." (14:45, Falk)

4. Fascinating Types of Ancient Prayer

• Graffiti Prayers:
  • Found in funerary contexts, on rocks in the Arabian desert, and inscribed on church walls.
  • They reflect everyday religious expressions, not just elite, literary forms:

    "Most studies of prayer in the ancient world have focused on, as I said, prayers in literary contexts...But there is a lot of graffiti prayer that most people are entirely unaware of..." (16:16, Falk)

• Inaccessible Prayers:
  • Prayers inscribed in hard-to-reach places (e.g., high on monuments), "not intended for the reading of other people, so presumably intended to be a continual prayer before the deity" (21:33, Falk).

5. The Structure and Purpose of the Encyclopedia

• Accessibility:
  • Entries are written by scholars for non-specialists to enable cross-cultural comparison and broader understanding.
• Metadata and Searchability:
  • Project embeds metadata—region, type, function, materiality, performer, gestures, etc.—to facilitate advanced, comparative search tools:

    "All of that can be not only searched for, but these are all standardized terms. So one can go across all of the areas very quickly." (26:15, Falk)

6. The Future Impact and Aspirations for the Field

• Facilitating Cross-Disciplinary Work:
  • Falk hopes this encyclopedic approach becomes a model for future interdisciplinary, database-driven studies, possibly with advancements through AI.
• Challenging Uniqueness Claims:
  • He challenges assumptions about the uniqueness of Jewish or Christian prayer versus so-called 'pagan' practices:

    "Every form of practice that one can find in so called pagan prayer, one finds within Jewish and Christian prayer practices." (31:37, Falk)

• Relevance Today:
  • The overlapping of prayer with wish, hope, and human communication makes the phenomenon more universal than often believed.

7. Prayer’s Relevance in Contemporary Life

• Motivation for Study, Even for Non-Practitioners:

  "...Even if they do not regard themselves as religious. The boundaries between, you know, prayer and wish and hopes and so on are pretty, they're pretty spongy." (29:41, Falk)

• Educational Value:
  • Understanding prayer’s historical functions enriches perspective on both ancient and modern societies, emphasizing humility and cross-religious understanding.

8. Falk’s Ongoing and Future Projects

• He is co-editing editions of the Dead Sea Scrolls and contemplates writing an accessible book reflecting on what the encyclopedia has revealed about defining and understanding prayer.
• Quote:

  "I would like to come back to reflect on write a more accessible...book, but reflecting on some of the things that we've learned from this study on the nature of prayer in the ancient world..." (33:54, Falk)

Memorable Quotes with Timestamps

• On defining prayer:

  "Prayer as any human act of communication with intent to solicit, benefit from or connection with a superhuman agent. And this is intentionally very ambiguous." (09:56, Falk)

• On graffiti prayers:

  "There’s thousands of them on rocks just in the middle of the desert. Little prayers...That sort of thing I find really fascinating—how people interact with their environment." (17:51, Falk)

• On challenging uniqueness:

  "Every form of practice that one can find in so-called pagan prayer, one finds within Jewish and Christian prayer practices." (31:37, Falk)

Important Timestamps

• Daniel Falk’s academic background and path (03:16 – 07:18)
• Defining prayer and project scope (07:54 – 11:43)
• Logistics and editorial structure (12:13 – 15:37)
• Graffiti and inaccessible prayers (16:03 – 22:34)
• User accessibility and metadata (25:37 – 28:25)
• Prayer in contemporary life and interreligious humility (29:33 – 33:02)
• Future projects (33:20 – 34:19)

Summary Table of Sections

| Section | Time | Content Summary | |------------------------------------|-------------|---------------------------------------------------| | Falk’s background and research | 03:16–07:18 | Path to prayer studies, Dead Sea Scrolls’ impact | | Defining “prayer” broadly | 07:54–11:43 | Project’s inclusive, functional definition | | Editorial logistics | 12:13–15:37 | Multi-editor/multi-language collaborative effort | | Unique prayer types | 16:03–22:34 | Graffiti, inaccessible prayers, context’s import | | Structure & use of encyclopedia | 23:10–28:25 | Accessibility, metadata, cross-cultural aims | | Impacts and interdisciplinary hopes| 25:18–29:33 | Cross-disciplinary use, digital research tools | | Contemporary relevance | 29:33–33:02 | Prayer’s overlap with hopes/wishes, humility | | Future work | 33:20–34:19 | Dead Sea Scrolls, potential new book project |

Tone and Style

The dialogue is scholarly yet welcoming, with Falk and Zakrin prioritizing clarity for non-specialist listeners. Falk is enthusiastic about breaking disciplinary boundaries and highlighting prayer as a universal aspect of human experience.

Conclusion

Prayer in the Ancient World Vol. 1 is positioned as a groundbreaking resource for understanding the breadth and diversity of ancient prayer, emphasizing the importance of comparative perspective and inclusivity. The discussion illuminates not only the scholarly challenges of cataloguing and defining prayer but also its continued significance in understanding humanity, both past and present.