Kairos Preaching

Kairos Preaching
Author: David Schnasa Jacobsen
Publisher: Fortress Press
Total Pages: 194
Release:
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1451406207

Although lectionary and worship allow us to deepen our appreciation for the Bible and the themes and emphases of the Christian calendar, they sometimes fail to allow preachers to speak the gospel directly to the situations that occupy their congregations. This book is designed to help pastors and seminarians discover resources they already have to unpack situations and understand them theologically in light of their task of preaching the gospel.

Getting to God

Getting to God
Author: Joni S. Sancken
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 141
Release: 2023-02-14
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1666737496

During times of deep trouble, God generates new and creative ways to break through the fear and pain to get to us even as we seek to get to God. Recent crises are unparalleled and world-changing. Life is a terminal condition. What we say on Sunday morning matters. Nothing is more important than communicating the power and presence of the living God, who for us and our broken dying world is strength, hope, healing, and salvation. And yet, the age-old challenge of how to name God in our world looms large. Amidst the immense challenges of preaching today, three preachers and teachers of preaching show a way forward by walking readers through a sermon-creation process for specific challenging circumstances that gets to God. This book demonstrates how preachers can proclaim God’s grace in our world today by building on the theological grammar and preaching method proposed by Paul Scott Wilson. Sancken, Powery, and Rottman lead by example, showing preachers how to contextualize a theologically rich approach to preaching, expand the horizon of ministry, and equip preachers with a vital practice, that of learning to look for and name God’s active presence in our world.

A Theology of Preaching and Dialectic

A Theology of Preaching and Dialectic
Author: Aaron P. Edwards
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 259
Release: 2018-07-12
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567678598

How does the preacher know what God might say now based upon the many things God said then? Preachers and theologians throughout Christian history have grappled with Scripture's diverse emphases alongside the urgent task of declaring the authoritative Word of God in the contemporary pulpit. Aaron Edwards offers a new way of engaging with this problem, by exploring the theological relationship between biblical dialectics and heraldic proclamation. Edwards highlights the theological necessity of dialectical variety, without forfeiting assertiveness in the prophetic moment of preaching. A vast array of key voices from the theological tradition are drawn upon - including Augustine, Aquinas, Eckhart, Luther, Calvin, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Chesterton, Barth, Bultmann, Tillich, Ebeling, and others - to navigate the connection between Scriptural unity, clarity, and paradoxical plurivocality, leading to a nuanced account of dialectic. Applying this to the homiletically neglected concept of 'heraldic' confidence in preaching, Edwards examines the theological possibility of preaching in light of dialectical complexity via its 'prophetic' dimension. He shows how the uniquely revelatory relationship of Word and Spirit enables Scriptural illumination, prophetic discernment, and dialectical decisiveness in the 'momentary' encounter which undergirds all Christian proclamation.

Religion and Doctor Who

Religion and Doctor Who
Author: Andrew Crome
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 187
Release: 2013-11-14
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1630874604

Doctor Who has always contained a rich current of religious themes and ideas. In its very first episode it asked how humans rationalize the seemingly supernatural, as two snooping schoolteachers refused to accept that the TARDIS was real. More recently it has toyed with the mystery of Doctor's real name, perhaps an echo of ancient religions and rituals in which knowledge of the secret name of a god, angel or demon was thought to grant a mortal power over the entity. But why does Doctor Who intersect with religion so often, and what do such instances tell us about the society that produces the show and the viewers who engage with it? The writers of Religion and Doctor Who: Time and Relative Dimensions in Faith attempt to answer these questions through an in-depth analysis of the various treatments of religion throughout every era of the show's history. While the majority of chapters focus on the television show Doctor Who, the authors also look at audios, novels, and the response of fandom. Their analyses--all written in an accessible but academically thorough style--reveal that examining religion in a long-running series such as Doctor Who can contribute to a number of key debates within faith communities and religious history. Most importantly, it provides another way of looking at why Doctor Who continues to inspire, to engage, and to excite generations of passionate fans, whatever their position on faith. The contributors are drawn from the UK, the USA, and Australia, and their approaches are similarly diverse. Chapters have been written by film scholars and sociologists; theologians and historians; rhetoricians, philosophers and anthropologists. Some write from the perspective of a particular faith or belief; others write from the perspective of no religious belief. All, however, demonstrate a solid knowledge of and affection for the brilliance of Doctor Who.

Preaching and the Human Condition

Preaching and the Human Condition
Author: Prof O. Wesley Allen JR.
Publisher: Abingdon Press
Total Pages: 113
Release: 2016-10-18
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1501818910

In the wake of Enlightenment emphasis on the individual and confidence in human progress/ability, sermons often suffer from a lack of adequate analysis and presentation of the human condition. The result is that preachers either 1. (intentionally or unintentionally) offer self-help type messages or 2. fail to help hearers experience the breadth of the good news of Jesus Christ because the “bad news” of the world is not presented with weight. In this work, the author proposes to use the pericope in which Jesus is asked about the greatest commandment (Mk 12:28–31) as a lens for preachers exploring the human condition cumulatively from three different perspectives across the course of their preaching week in and week out. “Love God” suggests a perspective in which the human condition is seen in relation to a broken relationship between humanity and God (vertical). “Love neighbor” suggests a perspective in which the broken relationship is between humans and others (horizontal). And “as yourself” suggests a brokenness in relationship to one’s self (inner). While different theological schools have emphasized these perspectives differently as the starting points for their anthropology, views of sin,etc., all schools include all three perspectives. In individual chapters, the author will unpack these three perspectives theologically, move to suggest practical homiletical approaches to preaching in relation to each perspective, and provide a sample sermon dealing with that perspective.

Shouting Above the Noisy Crowd: Biblical Wisdom and the Urgency of Preaching

Shouting Above the Noisy Crowd: Biblical Wisdom and the Urgency of Preaching
Author: Charles L. Aaron Jr.
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 121
Release: 2021-11-09
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1532602812

What could we accomplish if only we acted more wisely? Could we mitigate the effects of diseases; help the vulnerable feel safer; make progress on justice; cooperate on common problems? We don't see enough wisdom, but neither did Woman Wisdom herself, who cried out in the streets wanting to gain attention. For every preacher who feels the urgency for more wisdom, this book has heard you. We know the urgency and we want to help.

Preaching to Korean Immigrants

Preaching to Korean Immigrants
Author: Rebecca Seungyoun Jeong
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 231
Release: 2022-09-14
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 3031078853

In terms of practical-theology’s critical reflection on marginalized people’s wounds in a wider society, this book investigates the question, “How to proclaim the good news in response to first-generation Korean immigrants’ contextual suffering in the United Sates?” To answer the question, the book starts with investigating Korean immigrant hearers’ contextual predicaments in a new land to point out emerging practical-theological issues in relation to the practice of preaching. In this book, the primary subjects are first-generation Korean immigrants, especially those who have relatively low socio-economic status and struggle with the purpose of their lives as immigrants, particularly those whose material dreams have been shattered. In order to proclaim the good news, this book proposes a more appropriate immigrant theology for/in the practice of preaching by reclaiming the priorities of God’s future in our lives and confirming God’s active identification with Korean immigrant congregations in the depths of their predicament. Such reconstructive work for immigrant theology arises in response to their existential hardships, marginality, ethnic discrimination, and relative powerlessness in life. While acknowledging both the possibilities and limits of the diverse forms of current Korean immigrant preaching, the book then offers a strategic proposal for a new homiletic theory, namely “a psalmic-theological homiletic.” This proposed homiletic is deeply rooted in the theology of the Psalms and their rhetorical movement. This re-envisioned mode of eschatological and prophetic preaching in times of difficulty recovers ancient Israel’s psalmic, rhetorical tradition that aims toward faith. Its theological-rhetorical strategy intends to both transform hearers’ habitus of living in faith and enhance their hope-filled life through communal anticipation of God’s coming future on the margins. Specifically, this proposed homiletic critically adopts key features from psalms of lament and their typical, fourfold theological-rhetorical movement (i.e., lament, retelling a story, confessional doxology, and obedient vow) as now core elements of a revised Korean-immigrant preaching practice.

Homiletical Theology in Action

Homiletical Theology in Action
Author: David Schnasa Jacobsen
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 203
Release: 2015-11-17
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1498207839

Homiletics is taking a theological turn. But what does the preaching task look like if we think of it not so much as a mastery of technique, but an exercise in theological method? Homiletical Theology in Action: The Unfinished Theological Task of Preaching tries to envision the work of homiletics as theological in root and branch. By placing theological questions at the center of the process, the authors, some of the leading lights of the field of homiletics, try to show how their work as preachers and homileticians is a thoroughgoing theological activity. By beginning with troublesome texts and problematic doctrines, they seek to show how preachers and homileticians engage in theology, not as consumers, but as producers--and in the thick of the kinds of questions that preachers have to ask. Practitioners and theological educators alike will catch a glimpse of how they too are residential theologians in their own preaching praxis.

Sermon Treks

Sermon Treks
Author: Ronald J. Allen
Publisher: Abingdon Press
Total Pages: 177
Release: 2013
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1426763867

Discover creative new trails for preaching beyond the lectionary.

Unspeakable

Unspeakable
Author: Sarah Travis
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 140
Release: 2021-06-09
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1725267977

Unspeakable probes the relationship between trauma theory and Christian theology in order to support preachers in the task of crafting sermons that adequately respond to trauma in the pews and the world at large. How might sermons contribute to resiliency and the repairing of wounds caused by traumatic experiences? This book seeks to provide a theological lens for preachers who wonder how their ‘beautiful words’ can address suffering amid traumatic wounding. Preaching is a healing discourse that proclaims gospel, or good news. Gospel is a complicated reality, especially in the face of trauma. Drawing on various theologies and insights from trauma theory, Unspeakable challenges the notion of a triumphant gospel, seeking an in-between perspective that honors both resurrection and the trauma that remains despite our desire to get to the good news. It builds on images of the preacher as witness and midwife in order to develop homiletical practices that acknowledge the limitations of language and imagination experienced by traumatized individuals.