[5] In Part 2, "Monastic Patronage'", the author investigates the contributions of the new elite class of gentry, made in the form of "land donations; money and materials for building and renovation; exercise of social and political influence to forward and protect monastic interests; and 'literary patronage,' the composition of admiring poems and essays or the compilation and printing of an institutional history to elevate the prestige of a given monastery.

"[5] Praying for Power is frequently cited in other scholarly works[7] and referred to in documents on the web sites of many educational establishments.

[8] Writing in the international journal of Sinology T'oung Pao, Barend J. ter Haar describes Praying for Power as a "splendid book".

[9] In The American Historical Review, Lynn Struve writes that the author "makes a substantial contribution to our understanding of a lamentably neglected subject area: the place of Buddhism in late-Imperial Chinese culture and society.

"[5] She explains that "the core source material of this book is a large body of local and monastic histories, usually called 'gazetteers' (difang zhi and sizhi), and Brook masterfully shows what can be done through assiduous mining of this genre.