From the title I thought this would be a book about prayer, but it's quite different. Think Myers-Briggs temperament analysis, Florence Littauer's Your Personality Tree, and Gary Chapman's The 5 Love Languages stirred together, with a liberal sprinkling of the audio/visual/kinesthetic learning styles, and you'll have an idea of what this book addresses.

First, this book does not explore the validity of various world religions; Thomas' approach is unabashedly Christian. But although there is one God from Genesis-Revelation, Thomas observes that believers through the ages have related to Him in different ways. From the pages of history, he traces these style preferences to movements and controversies within the church, and makes a pretty convincing case that although "it would be simplistic to suggest that such differences were the sole or even primary cause of many church splits and denominations... they did have some effect." Exploring historic church movements, personality temperaments, and a variety of biblical characters, he identifies an assortment of responses or "sacred pathways" in which individuals naturally relate to God.

Each of us has a heart response to God that feels more natural -- our "hardwiring," if you will. This response usually settles across 2 or 3 areas. Thomas' premise: by identifying our own spiritual temperaments, we can begin to understand ourselves (and each other) better and develop new ways to draw near to God.