Philip Zaleski

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Philip Zaleski is the author and editor of several books on religion and spirituality. He is coauthor with his wife Carol Zaleski of Prayer: A History and coeditor with her of The Book of Heaven. His other books include a guide to Benedictine spirituality, The Recollected Heart, and a study of spiritual practices in world religions, Gifts of the Spirit. He is also the editor of the annual series Best American Spiritual Writing and its predecessor, Best Spiritual Writing. His writings on religion and culture appear regularly in national periodicals including The New York times and First Things. Forthcoming books by Zaleski include a cultural history of the Inklings and The Book of Hell, a companion volume to The Book of Heaven.

One of Zaleski's main subjects is prayer, which he has described in a television interview as "communication between the human and transcendent realms, an act that for most people means trying to communicate with a personal God, coming into contact with a Person who cares about them and loves them and can offer them help. This communication may in time become a two-way street, as God speaks back. We know of people who report this sort of experience, people whose lives are based on this, people who wake up every morning believing that they're in touch with God. They pray to God and receive a response from God. And this relationship makes people profoundly happy, which tells us that prayer is something essential to our nature, as if it were hardwired in us." [1]