Browsing by Subject "Preaching"

This thesis will describe the way a story functions within a sermon as a layer of meaning placed over the biblical text that enhances a particular message from the Gospel. Stories allow the faithful to become active listeners as they unite their own stories to the one being told, creating a shared, lived experience. To demonstrate how the layering of stories function in a homily, I have created an art series of assemblages, visually illustrating how each layer focuses on certain textual details while discarding others. This visual exegesis highlights themes in the biblical text and illuminates the sermonic role of stories. It also provides an avenue for spiritual reflection, revealing similarities between my artistic process and my process of sermon preparation. The thesis is completed with a homily, synthesizing the elements described and sharing a message of hope from the scriptural account of the three young men in the fiery furnace (Daniel 3).

This dissertation explores how the combination of pious practice, economic activity, and religious poverty shaped the architecture of the mendicants in medieval Verona. It also examines how the presence of the friars affected the city. By the thirteenth century, the populated centers of northern Italy were fertile grounds for heretical movements, religious skepticism, and anti-clerical attitudes. The mendicant orders developed as a response to the crisis of the medieval church in the city and provided a new concept of the religious vocation, one committed to voluntary poverty and the conversion of heretics. The most important representatives of the new orders were the Franciscans and Dominicans, who centered their religious mission in an urban context where the growth of commerce and a literate and numerate middle class required a new approach to pastoral care, one that directly addressed both doctrinal and social issues. The friars revolutionized traditional religious practice: they used exterior sites as extensions of liturgical space and their innovative approach to church architecture emphasized function and utility.

Existing studies on mendicant building have traditionally emphasized the formal characteristics of the monuments, examining churches in isolation, with little concern for context, use, and sequence of construction. This dissertation moves beyond this approach to consider the broader circumstances that frame the appearance of mendicant houses. It examines how the Franciscan church of S. Fermo Maggiore, the Dominican church of S. Anastasia, and their respective communities, responded to the dynamics of urban Verona. The study includes revised construction narratives and new dates for S. Fermo and S. Anastasia that emphasize the process of construction--how the friars approached their building projects--and the role of lay patronage in the configuration of architectural space. As research reveals, the friars began to erect their conventual complexes before instigating construction or reconstruction of the churches themselves, and this sequence had significant implications for how the friars used the spaces in and around their convent for preaching and liturgical celebrations. They planned or reconfigured their architectural space to both appeal to and accommodate the lay public and their pious practices, including sermon attendance, burial, and the veneration of local saints. Modifications to the exterior spaces around the convents likewise indicate their liturgical importance. By investigating the specific interactions between the mendicants and the city of Verona, this dissertation explores how the architecture of the friars expressed aspects of the society in which they operated.

This dissertation studies Monsignor Óscar Romero’s theological, hermeneutical, and pastoral approach to preaching to the suffering and wounded people of El Salvador from 1977 to 1980 while he was the Archbishop of San Salvador. At that time, the marginalization, oppression, persecution, and exploitation of the poor people of El Salvador at the hands of the government, the oligarchy, the armed forces, and paramilitary groups was unbearable. The blood of the poor people and religious leaders who defended the poor, including his friend Rutilio Grande, was running through the mountains, lakes, and beaches of El Salvador, and Archbishop Romero could no longer ignore it. Through his homilies, he gave voice to their trauma and denounced the oppressive systems and structures that were at the root of their suffering. Inspired by the Holy Spirit and guided by his sentir with God, the people, and the Magisterium of the Church, Romero became the Spirit-guided and empathetic pastor the people needed. Through his homilies, Romero provided a “sanctuary space” where these suffering and wounded people could find refuge, hope, and possibility. The dissertation examines the ways in which Romero’s theological, hermeneutical, and pastoral framework can inform sermons that speak to suffering and traumatized people, such as undocumented Hispanic/Latinx immigrants in the U.S.

Some recent trends in homiletics have begun to move beyond postmodern questions to postcolonial questions. One primary concern shared among many contemporary homileticians, and especially articulated by postcolonial homileticians, is “relationality.” How can diverse peoples with diverse histories interacting through a variety of power dynamics truly relate to one another? How can those people relate to God and God’s word, especially as God’s word is proclaimed through preaching by a human being who is caught up in those power dynamics? These questions touch on the relationality of bodies, minds, and teaching; they explore anthropology, epistemology, and practical theology. However, the issues at the heart of relationality are not new. This thesis explores the homiletical theory and practice of St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430 CE), with a view toward how Augustine anticipates some of the core questions of relationality raised in the 21st century. The first chapter synthesizes contemporary questions of relationality and suggests why Augustine is an apt conversation partner for these questions. The body of the thesis (chs. 2—4) focuses on a close reading of Augustine’s treatise, De Doctrina Christiana, and select sermons, through the lenses of the questions synthesized in ch. 1. The final chapter brings the insights gained from chs. 2—4 back into conversation with three contemporary sermons, each preached by a postcolonial homiletician. By setting Augustine’s sermons alongside contemporary sermons, this thesis seeks to show that there is much to draw on in the historic Christian tradition to help answer contemporary homiletical questions. Ultimately, it will be argued that Augustine’s way of interweaving various characteristics of bodies, minds, and teaching and his crucial reliance on the Holy Spirit to hold together the overflowing and intermingling relational dynamics of the preaching event outline a way of preaching relationally in both the 5th and the 21st centuries.

Our knowledge of the kinds of trauma people experience and the impact that it has has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years. Some margin of that knowledge has crossed over into the religious landscape, particularly about pastoral care and theology. This paper will take up the idea that preaching and, by extension, the other parts of the liturgy can be a part of reforming and healing the fractured imaginations of persons and communities who have experienced traumatic events, leading them to post-traumatic growth and thriving.My knowledge of preaching being far greater than my knowledge of trauma theory, my first priority was extensive research in that field; I studied how trauma impacts both individual bodies and whole communities, first utilizing Bessel van der Kolk and Judith Hermann, two established and well-regarded researchers. From there, I moved into source material from the medical field, finding significant intrigue in a 1688 dissertation from a medical library that was one of the first texts to describe the way traumatic events fracture imagination. Then I moved to experts in the field of preaching and worship – Will Willimon, Barbara Brown Taylor, Rick Lischer, Luke Powery, and more. It became clear that preaching is a vocation of words and imagination, and trauma’s chief impacts rob people of those very things. Thus, preachers have a critical role to play in the healing of their communities by providing shared, sacred language and a space to reintegrate broken imaginations.

This thesis looks to Peter as a model of witnessing to Christ through the act of preaching. Its primary material are the speeches delivered immediately after the arrival of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2, 3, 4, and 5. A study of the similarities those speeches reveals the basic components of Peter’s model: the involvement of the Holy Spirit; building the sermon on recent miraculous events; presenting a clear, concise, and consistent version of the kerygma; making use of Scripture as evidence; and finishing with a call to response. To apply Peter’s model to a mainline Protestant pulpit, the author utilized her observations in the preparation and delivery of a Christmas Eve sermon. The effectiveness of that application was measured through an anonymous follow-up survey and a comparison of January attendance with the previous year, as well as the author’s own impressions. Although the application of Peter’s model did not translate into a miraculous increase in attendance, the survey responses and the author’s positive experience indicated that it is both possible and beneficial to follow Peter’s example in contemporary preaching.

The Hispanic Protestant population of the United States has grown dramatically in recent decades, yet scholars have paid little if any attention to the preachers or the preaching within Hispanic Protestant congregations. The thesis of this project is that the unique transnational experiences, immigration stories, bicultural identities, and contextual hardships of Hispanic preachers actually shape their calling, praxis, and proclamation in significant ways. The primary methodology employed within this dissertation is collaborative ethnography as described by Luke Eric Lassiter in The Chicago Guide to Collaborative Ethnography. This study involved a multiyear period of participant-observation as well as several rounds of interviews and focus group sessions with twenty-four individual subjects engaged in preaching ministries within Hispanic Protestant congregations.

This dissertation highlights the ways in which the sermons of Hispanic Protestant preachers who are recent immigrants echo the particular concerns of immigrant communities while also focusing strongly on the importance of spiritual conversion. It also demonstrates the role of testimony and the power of the preaching platform for female preachers within this demographic. My collaborators revealed, through their stories and proclamation, the incredible homiletical importance of the preacher’s ability to understand and to speak from within the culture of his or her congregation. This bears significant implications for the way in which future ministers engage in both vocational discernment and theological education. It also highlights the encouraging possibilities of ethnography for pastoral practice. Furthermore, the practice of the collaborators featured in this dissertation reveals the sustaining power of preaching within marginalized communities. Finally, the aims of the predicadores involved in this work reveal their hopes for the future of their congregations, which do not easily fit within the typical categories assigned to them in sociological analyses.

Out of the crucible of racism, pain, dehumanization, subjugation, marginalization, discrimination, enslavement, and death inflicted upon Black bodies, Black persons responded with a hermeneutic of freedom and prophetic proclamation in the North American context. Amidst a death-dealing system of oppression and chattel slavery, Black persons through proclamation—sermons, stories, songs, spirituals, modes of worship, words, lived experiences, and embodied acts of resistance—utilized their faith to challenge the heresy of white supremacy. Black religion and spirituality were conceived and birthed in response to existential pain, suffering and death. Black religion and the Black Church were rooted in a proclamation that not only utilized Christianity in the West, but also refashioned it in order to liberate the mind, body, and soul of Black people from the pangs of unwarranted death – prophetic proclamation.

Undoubtedly, today, in a nation that is scorched by hate, systemic oppression, and injustice, the Black Church of the 21st century is in dire need to recover its ministry of prophetic proclamation in the face of death and evil powers. Although the Black Church’s conception is formed out of prophetic proclamation and resistance to perpetual crisis and death, a number of Black congregations have forgotten the history and tradition of the Black Church. Messages of prosperity have seemingly replaced prophetic proclamation. In this project, I suggest that the survival of the Black Church hangs on the tradition of prophetic proclamation. I suggest that the Black Church will only survive if its mission and ministry are rooted in addressing and responding to the pervasive reality of death inflicted upon Black bodies through varying forms of prophetic proclamation as seen through resistance in the Middle Passage to the modern-day Black Lives Matter Movement.

Given the monumental changes brought about by the global COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, and the continual and perpetual threat of death and oppression upon the Black body in today’s society, the Black Church has been forced to explore ‘church’ in a different way – beyond the four walls of a church building. This new reality shows the Black Church that we must embrace the fluidity and intricacy of proclamation which moves from traditional, pulpit-centered discourse to diverse, enlivened, and embodied discourse which will ultimately transform the lives of Black peoples.

This dissertation argues that domination in its many forms (political, economic, cultural, theological) continues to significantly affect Old Testament hermeneutics and homiletics. Those who write about preaching the Old Testament frequently depict the Old Testament as a sort of Suffering Servant—despised, rejected, and acquainted with grief. However, as a review of literature in chapter 2 shows, despite the helpful strategies and insights offered by homileticians who write on Old Testament preaching, the majority do not significantly address larger issues of domination and marginalization in their treatment of these texts. By contrast, a close reading of the four Suffering Servant Songs as preaching in chapter 3 highlights several key ways in which domination affected, and continues to affect, homiletical approaches to the Old Testament. These insights are developed further in chapter 4 by reflection on the work of Alexander Deeg, a German, Christian homiletician learning from Jewish hermeneutics and working to undo centuries of Christian domination. Examination of recent leading African American homileticians in chapter 5 also shows a long-standing and developing homiletic that frequently draws on the Old Testament to respond directly to contexts of injustice.

Preaching the Old Testament with an awareness of ancient and contemporary domination leads to a different homiletic approach. The Old Testament becomes an ally and example for combatting marginalization and a model for proclaiming older texts in new contexts. Further, Second Isaiah’s use of the Servant trope, Alexander Deeg’s work on preaching in the presence of Jews, and the witnesses of African American preaching invite Christian proclamation that focuses on undoing the oppression of othering, preaches with the Spirit, announces the Liberating, Creator God, and engages messianism without being anti-Jewish. These approaches demonstrate that the Old Testament sings good news, especially in contexts of suffering and domination.

This thesis will address the role of nonverbal communication for clergy, while examining the impact such communication has on the ability of a congregation to most fully receive the gospel. My thesis contends that information shared by clergy is not received adequately by congregations when those providing these messages fail to understand the connection between content being offered, and the manner in which the content is delivered. My contention is not that communicating is merely a matter of technique; the Spirit works through our shortcomings as speakers to provide powerful messages which inspire transformation. Instead, my assertion is that we as clergy have a responsibility to embrace nonverbal communication practices that best serve to enhance reception of the good news, whether that communication is shared during a sermon, while teaching a class, participating in a meeting, or offering pastoral care.

Methodology to be employed during this work will draw together resources and experiences shared by communication consultants from my earlier employment as a television meteorologist, and research offered through texts related to nonverbal communication practices and the psychology of communication. Offerings from both early and contemporary church leaders will be included, as I seek to incorporate theology and homiletics related to nonverbal communication.

The primary conclusions of the study are 1) Oral communication is enhanced or subverted depending on the manner in which nonverbal communication accompanies the spoken word. 2) Nonverbal communication is transmitted in numerous ways, including facial expression, gestures, body posture, and eye contact. 3) Gender plays a role when interpreting nonverbal communication.

This thesis project focuses on preaching a robust theology of the cross. This work was born out of a desire to envision and enable preaching shaped by a theology of the cross that acknowledges historic theologies of the atonement, while also being informed by contemporary voices that have served to broaden the church’s understanding of God’s saving act through the cross of Jesus Christ.

A robust theology of the cross seeks to identify those aspects of atonement theologies that have been co-opted by oppressive power structures, recognizing the deeply problematic ways that theologies of the cross have supported the oppression of the weakest and most vulnerable among us. This project seeks to bring voices into the conversation that have often been marginalized in hopes of a more inclusive and faithful theology of the cross.

The methodology for this thesis reflects research through the exploration of a variety of available literary resources, engaging theologians representative of differing historic and contemporary views on the cross. In addition to surveying traditional atonement theories that have been fundamental to the church’s understanding historically, the contributions of black, liberation and feminist theologians have been engaged to develop a deeper understanding and more robust theology of the cross.

After engaging with a variety of theologians in search of a more comprehensive theology of the cross, this thesis explores the implications of a robust cruciform theology for contemporary preaching. In the final chapter I offer some examples of my own pulpit ministry that have been informed by this project.

Through engaging traditional and contemporary theologians, I have come to appreciate more fully the overlapping of theological motifs and images of the cross that are provided through the biblical narratives. This work has left me with a clear understanding that to claim one particular atonement theory to the exclusion of all others hampers any hope of developing a rich and robust theology of the cross.

The theological perspectives encountered in this work have had an impact on my life and ministry. The Christus Victor views of Gustaf Aulen have greatly expanded my understanding of Christ’s conquering work over against the principalities and powers, while the work of Charles Campbell has greatly impacted my understanding of preaching’s role in leading congregations toward a posture of resistance against the powers.

Black, liberation and feminist theologians have offered valuable critiques of traditional atonement theories, theories that have often been mishandled by the powerful, becoming tools of oppression against the weak and vulnerable. I believe my use of theological language is more faithful and sensitive thanks to their witness.

I’ve come to a deeper appreciation of the role solidarity plays in a faithful Christian witness. This work has revealed to me more fully that cross-bearing discipleship requires standing in solidarity with those who suffer unjustly, while joining in the struggle against all forms of injustice. I realize now that to stand in solidarity with the One whose death on the cross is the supreme act of solidarity with human suffering is to stand in solidarity with those who suffer, especially the weakest and most vulnerable.

I now see more clearly that the cross provides a way of seeing. To see my neighbors through the lens of the cross is to see their suffering, to see the results of injustice and to see my own complicity with systemic and institutional barriers to life-giving wholeness and freedom for all people.

This project was born out of a desire to engage in a pulpit ministry that enables and empowers a cruciform congregational character. Through this thesis project, I have come to believe more strongly than ever that faithful cross-shaped preaching is essential to casting a vision that supports a way of seeing and knowing that can open the hearts and minds of thoughtful Christian disciples, stirring imaginations to consider what it means to take up one’s cross and follow Jesus.

This thesis project focuses on preaching a robust theology of the cross. This work was born out of a desire to envision and enable preaching shaped by a theology of the cross that acknowledges historic theologies of the atonement, while also being informed by contemporary voices that have served to broaden the church’s understanding of God’s saving act through the cross of Jesus Christ.

A robust theology of the cross seeks to identify those aspects of atonement theologies that have been co-opted by oppressive power structures, recognizing the deeply problematic ways that theologies of the cross have supported the oppression of the weakest and most vulnerable among us. This project seeks to bring voices into the conversation that have often been marginalized in hopes of a more inclusive and faithful theology of the cross.

The methodology for this thesis reflects research through the exploration of a variety of available literary resources, engaging theologians representative of differing historic and contemporary views on the cross. In addition to surveying traditional atonement theories that have been fundamental to the church’s understanding historically, the contributions of black, liberation and feminist theologians have been engaged to develop a deeper understanding and more robust theology of the cross.

After engaging with a variety of theologians in search of a more comprehensive theology of the cross, this thesis explores the implications of a robust cruciform theology for contemporary preaching. In the final chapter I offer some examples of my own pulpit ministry that have been informed by this project.

Through engaging traditional and contemporary theologians, I have come to appreciate more fully the overlapping of theological motifs and images of the cross that are provided through the biblical narratives. This work has left me with a clear understanding that to claim one particular atonement theory to the exclusion of all others hampers any hope of developing a rich and robust theology of the cross.

The theological perspectives encountered in this work have had an impact on my life and ministry. The Christus Victor views of Gustaf Aulen have greatly expanded my understanding of Christ’s conquering work over against the principalities and powers, while the work of Charles Campbell has greatly impacted my understanding of preaching’s role in leading congregations toward a posture of resistance against the powers.

Black, liberation and feminist theologians have offered valuable critiques of traditional atonement theories, theories that have often been mishandled by the powerful, becoming tools of oppression against the weak and vulnerable. I believe my use of theological language is more faithful and sensitive thanks to their witness.

I’ve come to a deeper appreciation of the role solidarity plays in a faithful Christian witness. This work has revealed to me more fully that cross-bearing discipleship requires standing in solidarity with those who suffer unjustly, while joining in the struggle against all forms of injustice. I realize now that to stand in solidarity with the One whose death on the cross is the supreme act of solidarity with human suffering is to stand in solidarity with those who suffer, especially the weakest and most vulnerable.

I now see more clearly that the cross provides a way of seeing. To see my neighbors through the lens of the cross is to see their suffering, to see the results of injustice and to see my own complicity with systemic and institutional barriers to life-giving wholeness and freedom for all people.

This project was born out of a desire to engage in a pulpit ministry that enables and empowers a cruciform congregational character. Through this thesis project, I have come to believe more strongly than ever that faithful cross-shaped preaching is essential to casting a vision that supports a way of seeing and knowing that can open the hearts and minds of thoughtful Christian disciples, stirring imaginations to consider what it means to take up one’s cross and follow Jesus.

The following thesis considers the benefits of classical rhetoric for contemporary preaching, with special reference to the classical memorization technique known as the method of loci (or Memory Palace). The goal for this research is to discern how the method of loci can help pastors to “preach by heart,” that is, to internalize the sermon such that they can preach it without notes as though it were an extemporaneous Spirit-prompted utterance. To this end, the thesis is structured around two parts. Following an Introduction that sets out the practical challenges to preaching by heart that attend many pastors, Part 1 provides a survey of classical rhetoric, especially the so-called “modes of persuasion” and “canons of rhetoric,” before then turning specifically to the canon of Memoria (“memory”) and its concomitant practice of the Memory Palace. Part 2 applies the insights of the first part to the process of sermon preparation more broadly, and then walks through the practice of the Memory Palace for preaching in particular. A Conclusion recapitulates the argument and demonstrates the method of loci in practice.

This dissertation seeks to disclose the reconciling power of Christian preaching, and examine the homiletical task through the lens of Jesus' command to "love your enemies." Because the heart of Christian preaching lies in the Word of God revealed as the Prince of Peace, Gospel proclamation and reconciliation are perpetually intertwined. God's message of reconciliation has irrupted in history through a Son who not only forbids the killing of enemies, but also commands his followers to love them. Yet, in the wake of history's bloodiest century, Christians continue to sanction divisive, violent responses to those considered strangers and enemies--even those who also claim the name "Christian." The time is ripe for an analysis of the proclaimed Word of God as a potent catalyst for reconciliation.

The church needs a theology of preaching that offers an alternative to the world's language about enemies. My contention is that a theological investigation of enemy-language will have a positive impact on the theory and practice of Christian preaching, while unearthing new possibilities for churches and other faith communities beset by seemingly insurmountable conflict. I challenge presumptions about who our enemies truly are through descriptions of the rhetorical, theological, and homiletical elements of gospel proclamation in communities torn by conflict. What I finally hope to show is that because God has entrusted the church with the message of reconciliation, preaching is then an inherently reconciling practice, unintelligible apart from its nature as an address to God's former enemies. Reconciling sermons address and sustain churches with cruciform speech, or gospel-shaped language redeemed by God's Spirit, through which disciples are summoned to recognize and embody the forgiveness of the crucified yet risen Jesus, and equipped to exemplify, as ambassadors of reconciliation, the radical consequences of Christ's lordship.

Methodologically, the dissertation pursues a theological analysis of preaching based on the relationship between the God of Jesus Christ and humankind. This reconciliation encompasses all things, past, present, and future. Such an assertion proceeds from a paradox: the world rejects Christ, and yet God has reconciled the world through Jesus on the cross (2 Cor. 5:18). Consequently, as Richard Lischer has said, reconciliation is the "animating principle" of preaching. God's reconciling action in Christ is the essential, constitutive homiletical thrust. Thus, sermonic language must align itself with God's reconciling action in Jesus' life, death, and resurrection.

The dissertation advances these claims through a theoretical analysis of the "enemy" as it occurs in theological discourse, biblical interpretation, homiletical rhetoric, and constructive theologies of preaching and reconciliation, as well as through theological investigations of the preaching of Will Campbell, and sermons directly related to The Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Overall, the dissertation combines the traditional disciplines of homiletics, theology, biblical interpretation, and rhetoric with contextualized field studies of "reconciling sermons." The ultimate hope of this work is to invite the field of homiletics and the church it serves toward a more comprehensive acknowledgement of the crucial, reciprocal relationship between preaching, reconciliation, and peacemaking.

Why do women experience a challenge when trying to relate to the biblical text? Women often feel like their voice is ignored and their story is silenced. Even with this challenge present, women have preached and proclaimed the Good News of Jesus Christ since the beginning of the faith. Women’s activity in the life of Christ is evident throughout the gospels, especially the gospel of John. However, certain congregations and denominations still assert that women are to be silent and submissive, and reserve leadership within the church to male pastors, preachers, and teachers. These groups misinterpret certain biblical text in an effort to maintain that women cannot be called to lead ecclesial bodies.

Such actions silence key passages in the New Testament. The Gospel of John elevates the role of women in the life and ministry of Jesus. This thesis will look at the narratives of the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well in John 4 and Mary Magdalene’s role in proclamation in the resurrection story in John 20, showing the manner in which scriptural text is used to elevate women’s leadership in the life of the modern church. The Gospel of John describes Jesus' view of women is one that elevates their status, personhood, and ability to share the gospel message. In the text, women are not merely followers, but they lead others to a knowledge of the Messiah. Not only is the discipleship of women important to Jesus, but Christ also calls women to then proclaim and share their experiences with others. This thesis will serve as a scriptural basis for elevating the leadership of both lay and clergy women and teaching faithful exegesis of the text within the modern ecclesial context. It will demonstrate the manner in which accurate exegesis leads to faithful preaching and teaching through a detailed analysis of John 4 and John 20.