Book Description

Karl Barth famously argued that all theology is sermon preparation. But what if all sermon preparation is actually theology? This book pursues a thoroughgoing theological vision for the practice of preaching as a way of doing theology. The idea is not just that homiletics is the realm of theological application. That would leave preaching in the position of simply implementing a theology already arrived at. Instead, the vision in these pages is of a form of theology that begins with preaching itself: its practice, its theories, and its contexts. Homiletical theology is thus a unique way of doing theology--even a constructive theological task in its own right. Homiletician David Schnasa Jacobsen has assembled several of the leading lights of contemporary homiletics to help to see its task ever more deeply as theological, yet in profoundly diverse ways. Along the way, readers will not only discover how homileticians do theology homiletically, but will deepen the way in which they understand their own preaching as a theological task. Contributors include: -Ronald J. Allen, Professor of Preaching and Gospels and Letters at Christian Theological Seminary -John S. McClure, Charles G. Finney Professor of Preaching and Worship at Vanderbilt Divinity School -Alyce M. McKenzie, George W. and Nell Ayers Le Van Professor of Preaching and Worship at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University -Michael Pasquarello III, Granger E. and Anna A. Fisher Professor of Preaching, at Asbury Theological Seminary -Luke A. Powery, Dean of the Chapel and Associate Professor of the Practice of Homiletics, at Duke University -Teresa Stricklen Eisenlohr, Ph.D., Associate for Worship, Office of Theology and Worship, at the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)