A History of Preaching (Vol 1)

A History of Preaching brings together narrative history andprimary sources to provide the most comprehensive guide available tothe story of the church's ministry of proclamation.

Bringing together an impressive array of familiar and lesser-knownfigures, Edwards paints a detailed, compelling picture of what it hasmeant to preach the gospel. Pastors, scholars, and students ofhomiletics will find here many opportunities to enrich theirunderstanding and practice of preaching.

Volume 1 contains Edwards's magisterial retelling of the story ofChristian preaching's development from its Hellenistic and Jewish rootsin the New Testament, through the late-twentieth century's discontentwith outdated forms and emphasis on new modes of preaching such asnarrative. Along the way the author introduces us to the complexitiesand contributions of preachers, both with whom we are alreadyacquainted, and to whom we will be introduced here for the first time.Origen, Chrysostom, Augustine, Bernard, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, Wesley,Edwards, Rauschenbusch, Barth; all of their distinctive contributionsreceive careful attention. Yet lesser-known figures and developmentsalso appear, from the ninth-century reform of preaching championed byHrabanus Maurus, to the reference books developed in the thirteenth andfourteenth centuries by the mendicant orders to assist their members'preaching, to Howell Harris and Daniel Rowlands, preachers of theeighteenth-century Welsh revival, to Helen Kenyon, speaking as alayperson at the 1950 Yale Beecher lectures about the view of preachingfrom the pew.

Volume 2, available separately as 9781501833786, contains primarysource material on preaching drawn from the entire scope of the church'stwenty centuries. The author has written an introduction to eachselection, placing it in its historical context and pointing to itsparticular contribution. Each chapter in Volume 2 is geared to itscompanion chapter in Volume 1's narrative history.

Ecumenical in scope, fair-minded in presentation, appreciative of thecontributions that all the branches of the church have made to thestory of what it means to develop, deliver, and listen to a sermon, A History of Preaching will be the definitive resource for anyone who wishes to preach or to understand preaching's role in living out the gospel.

"...'This work is expected to be the standard text on preaching forthe next 30 years,' says Ann K. Riggs, who staffs the NCC's Faith andOrder Commission. Author Edwards, former professor of preaching atSeabury-Western Theological Seminary, is co-moderator of the commission,which studies church-uniting and church-dividing issues.

'A History of Preaching is ecumenical in scope and will be relevant in all our churches; we all participate in this field,' says Riggs...." from EcuLink, Number 65, Winter 2004-2005 published by the National Council of ChurchesRead less