John S. McClure

John S. McClure (he, his) is the Charles G. Finney Professor of Preaching and Worship, Emeritus at Vanderbilt University Divinity School. His special interests are in the relationships between philosophy, theology, ethics, popular culture and preaching and worship. His publications include The Four Codes of Preaching: Rhetorical Strategies (Fortress, 1991, Westminster John Knox Press, 2003), The Roundtable Pulpit: Where Preaching and Leadership Meet (Abingdon, 1995), Telling the Truth: Preaching About Sexual and Domestic Violence (co-edited with Nancy Ramsay, United Church Press, 1998), Best Advice for Preaching (Fortress, 1998), Other-wise Preaching: A Postmodern Ethic for Homiletics (Chalice, 2001), Claiming Theology in the Pulpit (co-authored with Burton Z Cooper, Westminster John Knox Press, 2003), Preaching Words: 144 Key Terms in Homiletics (Westminster John Knox Press, 2007), Mashup Religion: Pop Music and Theological Invention (Baylor University Press, 2011), and Under the Oak Tree: The Church as a Community of Conversation in a Conflicted and Pluralistic World (Co-Edited with Ronald J. Allen and O. Wesley Allen, Wipf and Stock, 2013), Speaking Together and With God: Liturgy and Communicative Ethics (Minneapolis, Lanham, MD: Fortress Academic / Lexington Press), Ethical Approaches to Preaching: Choosing the Best Way to Preach About Difficult Issues (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2021),and with Allie Utley, Learning Together to Preach: How to Become an Effective Preaching Coach. He is a past president (2003) of the Academy of Homiletics, and was editor of the Academy's journal Homiletic for 12 years. Ordained in the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), he served as the pastor of Ensley Highland Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Alabama, and taught preaching for 17 years at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary before arriving at Vanderbilt in 2003.