Preaching Prophetic Care: Building Bridges to Justice

Preachers often think of prophetic preaching in the caricature of the prophet as the lonely outsider confronting the congregation, often angrily, with the congregation's complicity in social injustice and with a bracing call for repentance. The twenty-seven essays and sermons in this book offer a different perspective by viewing prophetic preaching specifically--and ministry, practical theology, and theological education more broadly--as pastoral care for the community in prophetic perspective. Such preaching does indeed bring a critical theological analysis of justice concerns to the center of the sermon, but in such a way as to invite the congregation to consider how the move toward justice is a pastoral move-- that is, a move that seeks to build up community. Rather than contributing to the polarization so rampant in today's social world, the preacher seeks to help the congregation build bridges along which concern for justice can travel. The contributions honor the work of the late Dale Andrews, a scholar of preaching and practical theology at the Divinity School, Vanderbilt University, whose seminal work inspires the notions of prophetic care and building bridges to justice.

Phillis-Isabella Sheppard is Associate Professor of Religion, Psychology and Culture at the Divinity School, and Graduate Department of Religion, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee.

Dawn Ottoni-Wilhelm is Brightbill Professor of Preaching and Worship at Bethany Theological Seminary, Richmond, Indiana.

Ronald J. Allen taught preaching and Gospels and Letters at Christian Theological Seminary for thirty-seven years. He is the author of many books, including I Will Tell You the Mystery (Cascade, 2019). He edited the two-volume work on theologies of preaching: Preaching the Manifold Grace of God (Cascade, 2022). Volume 1 focuses on historical theologies, and Volume 2 focuses on contemporary theologies.

Emilie M. Townes is the Dean and the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of Womanist Ethics and Society at Vanderbilt University Divinity School. She was the first African American woman president of the American Academy of Religion (2008) and currently serves as the president of the Society for the Study of Black Religion (2012-16). She is the author or editor of eight books and was elected a Fellow in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2009.