O. Wesley Allen

The Rev. Dr. O. Wesley Allen, Jr. is the Lois Craddock Perkins Professor of Homiletics and director of the Perkins Center for Preaching Excellence at Perkins School of Theology Southern Methodist University, in Dallas, Texas. Wes works at the intersection of several areas of interest: New Testament interpretation, preaching in the midst of the changing nature of our contemporary culture, and offering tools to help preachers increase the effectiveness of their sermons.

In terms of New Testament, Wes specializes in the Synoptic Gospels and Acts. He has a lectionary commentary on Matthew (2016) and his most recent book is a more extensive literary and theological commentary on Mark (2026) that reads the Gospel as a parable in its entirety.

In terms of connecting preaching to our current era, Allen is especially concerned with how preaching ancient texts is relevant for a postmodern culture. His Homiletic of All Believers (2005) set up his core conversational homiletical approach, on which he has expanded in numerous volumes--e.g., Under the Oak Tree (2013) and The Sermon without End (2015). His forthcoming book, The Sermonic Bridge (2027) builds on Preaching and the Human Condition (2016).

Part of his concern for preaching in the current age includes two works that deal with social justice preaching: Beyond Heterosexism and the Pulpit (2015) and Preaching in the Era of Trump (2016).

In terms of more explicit homiletical help for preachers, Allen edited the Elements for Preaching series, in which he wrote Determining the Form (2008), and the Preaching and… interdisciplinary series, in which he wrote Preaching and the Thirty Second Commercial (2021) that draws on advertising approaches to enhance preaching. Wes has also edited the popular Preachers Bible Handbook (2019), in which diverse homileticians and biblical scholars offer preachers describe the historical and literary contexts of every book in the Bible in ways that are useful to be shared in sermons.