Preachings most able practitioners gather in this book to explore and explain the idea that preaching is a practice that can be taught and learned. Arguing that preaching is a living practice with a long tradition, an identifiable shape, and a broad set of norms and desired outcomes, these noted scholars propose that teachers initiate students into the larger practice of preaching, in ways somewhat like other students are initiated into the practice of medicine or law. The book concludes with designs for a basic preaching course and addresses the question of how preaching courses fit into the larger patterns of seminary curricula.

"If you ain't got no proposition, you ain't got no sermon neither." This was the battle cry of Isaac Rufus Clark, one of the most influential and colorful professors of homiletics in the black church in the twentieth century. Clark taught at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta for twenty-seven years (1962-1989). In Teaching Preaching, Katie Cannon, one of Clark's myriad preaching protégés, conceives her role as purely "presentational": "to bring Clark face to face with a reading audience, allow him to explain the formal elements of preaching from the inside out." Teaching Preaching is an invaluable resource for ministers who struggle from Sunday to Sunday to find their ethical voice in the preparation of each and every sermon.

Many preachers ignore preaching from the Old Testament because they feel it is outdated in light of the New Testament and difficult to expound. On the other hand, some preachers will preach from the Old Testament frequently but fail to handle it correctly, turning it into moralistic rules or symbolic lessons for our spiritual life. In How to Preach and Teach the Old Testament for All Its Worth, Christopher J. H. Wright proclaims that preachers must not ignore the Old Testament. It is the Word of God! The Old Testament lays the foundation for our faith and it was the Bible that Jesus read and used. Looking first at why we should preach from the Old Testament, the author moves on to show the reader how they can preach from it. Covering the History, Law, Prophets, Psalms, and Wisdom Literature, interspersed with practical checklists, exercises, and sermons, Wright provides an essential guide on how to handle the Old Testament responsibly.

Preaching is best learned and improved when preachers receive excellent, supportive reflection on their lived experiences and sermons. For nearly ten years at Vanderbilt Divinity School a group of scholars and practicing preachers joined together to develop and hone several models of peer-group and individual coaching. In this book, they describe the key dimensions of “collaborative coaching,” a learner-centered approach to coaching that emphasizes covenant-building, deep spiritual curiosity, care-filled listening, ethical awareness, attention to bodies and places, parallel learning, careful sermon analysis, and the art of asking excellent questions. In the final section of the book, practitioners provide examples of this kind of coaching in practice.

Distinguished Old Testament scholar Walter Kaiser believes that the Old Testament is sorely neglected today in teaching and preaching, but it is even more neglected when it comes to setting forth the hope that Christians have for the future. Firmly believing that the Old Testament offers important insights into biblical eschatology and the Christian life, he provides guidance for expositing fifteen key Old Testament eschatological passages to preachers, teachers, and Bible students. Each chapter focuses on a single biblical text. Kaiser introduces the topic, examines the issues, notes who has contributed to some of the solutions, and shows how this sets up the text to be exegeted and prepared for exposition.

In Religious Education in Thirteenth-Century England, Andrew Reeves examines how laypeople in a largely illiterate and oral culture learned the basic doctrines of the Christian religion. Although lay religious life is often assumed to have been a tissue of ignorance and superstition, this study shows basic religious training to have been broadly available to laity and clergy alike. Reeves examines the nature, availability and circulation of sermon manuscripts as well as guidebooks to Christian teachings written for both clergy and literate laypeople. He shows that under the direction of a vigorous and reforming episcopate and aided by the preaching of the friars, clergy had a readily available toolkit to instruct their lay flocks.

A comprehensive introduction to preaching, emphasizing the encounter with God's grace as the goal and heart of the sermon.

ÒA history of Christian education must not be confused with a record of the achievements of the Sunday School. The discipline has advanced well beyond that stage, and today's sophisticated students fully understand that no proper concept of the history and philosophy of Christian education can be gained without seeing all the ramifications, implications, and influences that have affected it from pre-Christian times to the present.Ó So Drs. Gangel and Benson have written this book, a historical flow of philisophical thought from a Christian point of view. Its focus is cultural-biographical, discussing each philosophy in its particular socio-historical setting, and giving special attention to significant individuals. The format is chronological, beginning with education in biblical times, working upward through history to arrive at the present - and beyond, raising questions and issues for the future.

A comprehensive examination of conversion thinking across Christian traditions that recovers ancient wisdom for today's church.

Transformational Preaching: Theory and practice is a comprehensive textbook for the beginning student of preaching, the graduate student in pulpit discourse, or the seasoned preacher. Seeking to reclaim the pulpit for biblical preaching, the book counteracts the popular "teaching" approach that is common today, and argues that preaching must be persuasive rather than informative, that the preacher is central to the act of preaching, and that through the preaching event, both preacher and listener together fashion the "message" and its meaning. Both theoretical and highly practical, the book offers a challenging look at all aspects of the preaching ministry. It contextualizes preaching in pastoral ministry and congregational worship, but, most significantly, argues that the practice of preaching must be informed and driven by theory. As such, the book draws from a wide perspective of disciplines, including biblical theology, classical rhetoric, contemporary human communication, public discourse, persuasion, linguistics, performance, and orality. The book's wealth of practical guidelines for every step of sermon development encourages students to apply general principles within their own contexts of ministry.