This book pursues the question of consciousness and thought through the art of preaching in a postcolonial era. Indeed, the past has bestowed upon the present the legacy of colonization and, in the South African context, apartheid. However, the endeavor of postcolonizing theology and homiletics is a contentious space that has not been settled. This book promotes a counterargument to the prevalent directions of decolonization by focusing on three themes of importance—consciousness, perspective, and identity—through the insights of primary postcolonial sources.

A comprehensive analysis of the New Testament from the perspective of postcolonial criticism, this title enables readers to relate biblical texts more sharply to the perennial geopolitical issues of imperialism and colonialism.

This is the first volume to provide a wide range of postcolonial interpretations of and commentaries upon significant texts in the Hebrew Bible. The volume intersects with the work of the key theorists in postcolonial studies such as Fanon, Senghor, Said and Spivak as well as with scholars such as Sugirtharajah, Kwok Pui-lan, and Segovia who have applied this theory to biblical studies. Texts have been chosen specifically for their relevance to postcolonial discourse, rather than seeking to cover each biblical document. This volume is designed to demonstrate how historical criticism, postmodernism, and the important concerns of postcolonial readings may be integrated to obtain an informed explanation of the Hebrew Bible and the writings of early Judaism. The chapters are written by scholars who represent a spectrum of national, indigenous, and diasporic contexts. Taken together these perspectives and the interpretations they yield represent a continued expansion of the manner in which Old Testament texts are read and interpreted through postcolonial lenses, reminding readers that the interpretive trajectories of these texts are almost inexhaustible. As such the volume serves as not only an addition to ongoing scholarship on postcolonialism but also as an expansion of the horizon for dialogue.

What makes for powerful preaching? Careful exegesis, logical structure, interesting illustrations, and clear speech can all help. But truly transformative preaching depends on divine power, not human skill alone. Those who would reduce preaching to simple systems or sure-fire strategies for success will find little of interest here. Instead, this book appeals to those (pastors and academics alike) who find themselves confounded by the occasional futility of their best preaching and the unexpected success of their worst. It invites readers to enter more deeply into the uncontrollable mystery that attends all efforts to speak in the name of Christ, above all on the topic of resurrection. Although the gospel always turns our attention to the crucified and risen Lord, preaching about resurrection calls us to trust that the same God who raised Jesus from death will likewise grant life to us as preachers, to our sermons, and to our hearers alike. Drawing on resources as diverse as Luther’s understanding of the Christian gospel, Speech Act theory, and Bhabha’s concept of “Third Space,” Third Voice: Preaching Resurrection argues that the true key to effective preaching is not rhetoric, but spirituality.

Practical theology has outgrown its traditional pastoral paradigm. The articles in this handbook recognize that faith, spirituality, and lived religion, within and beyond institutional communities, refer to realms of cultures, ritual practices, and symbolic orders, whose boundaries are not clearly defined and whose contents are shifting. The International Handbook of Practical Theology offers insightful transcultural conceptions of religion and religious matters gathered from various cultures and traditions of faith. The first section presents ‘concepts of religion’. Chapters have to do with considerations of the conceptualizing of religion in the fields of ‘anthropology’, ‘community’, ‘family’, ‘institution’, ‘law’, ‘media’, and ‘politics’ among others. The second section is dedicated to case studies of ‘religious practices’ from the perspective of their actors. The third section presents major theoretical discourses that explore the globally significant diversity and multiplicity of religion. Altogether, sixty-one authors from different parts of the world encourage a rethinking of religious practice in an expanded, transcultural, globalized, and postcolonial world.

Preaching and Social Issues: Tools and Tactics for Empowering Your Prophetic Voice equips preachers to craft sermons that help congregations talk about topics of public concern based on strong ethical, biblical, and theological foundations as well as prudent sermonic strategies. Informed by years of research with clergy and congregations, Leah D. Schade provides practical and pastoral guidance for preachers to find their prophetic voice for their context with integrity and wisdom. Preaching and Social Issues offers an assessment tool for gauging risk and capacity for preaching about social issues and suggests three approaches—Gentle, Invitational, and Robust. This book includes case studies and sermons that illustrate different approaches for preaching about contemporary topics.

Christian and Islamic sermons from past and present, and their preachers, are analyzed to reveal the socio-cultural dynamics of religious speeches. Part I focuses on the explicit contribution of sermons in socio-cultural transformation processes. It shows how sermons connect with holy texts, religious norms of the specific group, and social-cultural contexts. Part II analyzes the dynamic tension between normativity and popularity. Rather than juxtaposing normative stances and the popularity of sermons, it shows how that normativity can itself contribute to popularity and the quest of popularity carries its own normative stances. Part III explores the ritual embeddedness of religious speech in the sermon in relation to social dynamics, normativity, and popularity, and shows how speech and rituals have a reciprocal relationship.

This volume advances the scholarly discussion of Jeremiah via rigorous feminist and postcolonialist theorizing of texts and interpretive issues in that prophetic book. The essays here, by seasoned scholars of Jeremiah, offer significant traction on the biblical book's construction of the persona of Jeremiah and the subjectivity of Judah as subaltern; analysis of gendered imagery for the speaking subject in Jeremiah and for the Judean social body; exploration of rhetorics of imperialism and resistance; and theological implications of feminist-critical perspectives on YHWH and other deities represented in Jeremiah. Essays here deftly synthesize historical, literary, and ideological-critical insights in service of nuanced inquiry into Jeremiah as complex cultural production. The collection represents the growing edge of recent critical thinking on Jeremiah in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere. It should prove invaluable in shaping the parameters of the continuing scholarly conversation on the Book of Jeremiah.

Preaching and the Other introduces the reader to six major themes characteristic of the postmodern era that are important for preaching and explains their implications. Themes discussed include: perception as interpretation, deconstruction, otherness, transgression, pluralism, and the importance of apologetics.

This volume develops an approach to preaching that brings together two important forces. One is process theology and the other is a homiletic of conversation based on mutual critical correlation. In this approach, the preacher does not unilaterally announce the Word of God but is the leader of an exciting conversation involving the biblical text, process theology, the congregation, and voices from the larger world. The preacher seeks to help the congregation identify God’s invitations towards inclusive well-being and to imagine how to respond in ways that are consistent with those invitations, that promote inclusive well-being. The book begins with a crisp and clear summary of the worldview of process theology, highlighting its distinctive views on how God operates in the world through invitation and on the interrelationship of all things. The work then outlines an approach to biblical exegesis informed by process perspectives and sketches a method for bringing the biblical voice into dialogue with voices from tradition, contemporary theology, and the congregation and preacher. The volume suggests shaping the sermon to honor process theology and conversation. The volume concludes by noticing how perspectives from process and conversation help the preacher embody the sermon in engaging ways.