Readers explore the way those who pray--whether in modern America or in ancient Babylon--hope for magic and submit to the divine will, seek for answers and contemplate mysteries. The Zaleskis limn traditional taxonomies of prayer that have long differentiated adoration from confession, thanksgiving from intercession, and they examine the forms of language, art, and music through which generations of believers have reached toward heaven. But many readers will particularly value the distinctively contemporary note in the survey of scientific studies of the efficacy of prayer and in the dissection of recent controversies over prayer in schools and other public forums. Surprisingly, investigation of modern prayer ends up teaching almost as much about skeptics (such as Darwin's cousin, Francis Galton) as about saints (such as Therese Martin). And in the American passions stirred by post-9/11 prayers, readers will discern a tangle of devotion and politics.