Text Message: The Centrality of Scripture in Preaching

Essays on preaching by scholars and pastors offering a vision of preaching as complex practice embedded in tradition and theological conviction.

Preaching has fallen on hard times with many questioning its relevance and even its validity as a New Testament practice. This symposium of specially commissioned essays draws together an international team of thirteen scholars and pastors to address the importance of textual preaching in the history and life of the early church, the historic church, and the contemporary church. Contributions include essays on Old Testament preaching; preaching in Eastern Orthodoxy; gender-sensitive preaching; and preaching in the theology of Jonathan Edwards, Charles Spurgeon and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. It also includes essays on a range of homiletical challenges that textual preaching raises for the contemporary preacher, including genre, preaching without notes, inhabiting the text, and preaching without platitudes. A final reflection by Dave Hansen on the state of textual preaching rounds out the collection.

The preaching of the gospel stands at the heart of Christian praxis. These essays make a vital contribution to the recovery of the importance of preaching, focused on the text of Scripture. Written with an eye to the pastor and practitioner as well as those in the pews and in the classroom, this is a book that is appealing to a wide range of readers.

Ian Stackhouse is Senior Pastor of Guildford Baptist Church, Surrey, and the author of several books and articles, including The Day Is Yours and Primitive Piety. Oliver D. Crisp is Professor of Systematic Theology at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. He is the author or editor of fourteen books, including Revisioning Christology and Jonathan Edwards on God and Creation.