Description
Preaching is a personal event: a minister or speaker prepares his or her sermon and presents it to the congregation. Preaching, however, also includes the Bible as a central source; this source comes from and provides a basis for the believing community. The preaching event is also personal for the individual members of the congregation, who are not simply recipients of the preacher’s words based on a biblical text.
The congregation is involved personally in that each individual interprets the words and the text. What is said in the text, in the sermon, and the listener’s response represent parts of each one’s testimony. Testimony runs throughout preaching, the Bible, and the congregation. It is in this interchange of preacher, text, and listener that not just one testimony develops but many testimonies are present.
About the Author
J. Dwayne Howell is Professor of Old Testament and Hebrew in the School of Theology at Campbellsville University in Campbellsville, Kentucky, and pastor of the Rolling Fork Baptist Church in Gleanings, Kentucky. He serves as the chair of the Homiletics and Biblical Studies Section of the Society of Biblical Literature.
Other Contributors
Charles L. Aaron, Pastor, Whaley United Methodist Church, Gainesville, Texas
Valerie Bridgeman, Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible/Homiletics and Worship Scholar of Theology and the Arts, Lancaster Theological Seminary
Walter Brueggemann, Professor Emeritus, Columbia Theological Seminary
David Cortés-Fuentes, Pastor, Iglesia Presbiteriana Hispana Emmanuel, Claremont, California
Anna Carter Florence, Peter Marshall Associate Professor of Preaching, Columbia Theological Seminary
Ruthanna B. Hooke, Associate Professor of Homiletics, Virginia Theological Seminary
Karoline M. Lewis, Assistant Professor of Preaching, Luther Seminary
John S. McClure, Charles G. Finney Professor of Preaching and Worship, Vanderbilt Divinity School
Contents
Preface
List of Contributors
List of Abbreviations
1. The Personal Nature of Preaching
J. Dwayne Howell
2. Preaching and the Personal
Anna Carter Florence
3. The Personal and Its Other in the Performance of Preaching
Ruthanna B. Hooke
4. The Risk of Testimony
Walter Brueggemann
5. Collaborative Preaching and the Bible: Toward a Practical Theology of Memory
John S. Mc Clure
6. “It Ain’t Necessarily So”: Resistance Preaching and Womanist Thought
Valerie Bridgeman
7. Liberating Preaching: Hispanic Hermeneutics and Homiletics: Collaborative and Contextual Approaches to Preaching
David Cortés-Feuntes
8. Preaching John: The Word Made Flesh as Theological and Interpretive Method
Karoline M. Lewis
9. Scholars and Soccer Moms: Reflections on Objectivity and Subjectivity in Moving from Text to Sermon
Charles L. Aaron
10. Hearing the Voices of Others: A Collaborative Reading of Leviticus 19
J. Dwayne Howell
11. Epilogue
J. Dwayne Howell
Appendix: Hispanic Biblical Hermeneutics and Homiletics: A Brief Bibliography
David Cortés-Feuntes
Bibliography
Endorsements and Reviews
People do not resist the call to the ministry because they are afraid they will have to prepare church budgets. No, like so many who went before them, they do not feel adequate to accept the responsibility of proclaiming God’s word. I encourage all, from neophyte to seasoned preachers, to engage in this fascinating conversation. These preachers and scholars challenge us to reflect upon the crucial issues of identity and authority in the pulpit.
Lucy Lind Hogan, Hugh Latimer Elderdice Professor of Preaching and Worship, Wesley Theological Seminary
This volume provides a much-needed insight into the preaching event. Its title aptly reflects the authors’ firm belief that text, preacher, and congregant are all active participants in interpreting and understanding Scripture. Divergent voices have contributed essays, yielding a collection that addresses many kinds of preaching events.
Nancy L. deClaissé-Walford, Carolyn Ward Professor of Old Testament and Biblical Languages, McAfee School of Theology
Each author makes a helpful contribution to their respective specialities in homiletics … this text would be beneficial both to homileticians and scholarly-minded pastors who seek to understand the mutually informative dynamic between preacher, text, and congregation.
David Giese, in The Expository Times, Vol 127, No 6
