Book Reviews
Book Reviews (23-1)
Called to Preach: Fulfilling the High Calling of Expository Preaching, Steven J. Lawson (Reviewer: Nicholas B. Marnejon) Preaching the Manifold Grace of God: Theologies of Preaching in Historical Theological Families, Volume 1, Ronald J. Allen, editor (Reviewer: Jared E. Alcántara) Oil Enough to Make the Journey: Sermons on the Christian Walk, Jack R. Lundbom (Reviewer: Mark Drinnenberg) Preaching by Heart: How a Classical Practice Helps Contemporary Pastors to Preach without Notes, Ryan P. Tinetti (Reviewer: Rock LaGioia) Shouting Above the Noisy Crowd: Biblical Wisdom and the Urgency of Preaching, edited by Charles L. Aaron Jr. and Jamie Clark-Soles (Reviewer: Charlie Ray III) Preaching the Gospel: Collected Sermons on Discipleship, Mission, Peace, Justice, and the Sacraments, Ronald J. Sider (Reviewer: James Rodgers) A Biblical Study Guide for Equal Pulpits, Young Lee Hertig (Reviewer: Caroline Smith) Embodied Hope: A Homiletical Theological Reflection, Veronice Miles (Reviewer: William Andrew “Ted” Williams) Old Made New, Greg Lanier (Reviewer: Ryan Boys) The Pastor’s Bookshelf: Why Reading Matters for Ministry, Austin Carty (Reviewer: Brian Carmichael Sr.) Chasing After Wind: A Pastor’s Life, Douglas J. Brouwer (Reviewer: Kevin Koslowsky) The Peoples’ Sermon: Preaching as a Ministry of the Whole Congregation, Shauna K. Hannan (Reviewer: Gary R. McLellan Jr.) Real People, Real Faith: Preaching Biblical Characters, Cindy Halvorson (Reviewer: Rob O’Lynn) Preaching the Truth as it is in Jesus: A Reader on Andrew Fuller, David E. Prince (Reviewer: Tony A. Rogers) Expository Preaching in Africa: Engaging Orality for Effective Proclamation, Ezekiel A. Ajibade (Reviewer: Jesse L. Nelson) When Narcissism Comes to Church: Healing Your Community from Emotional and Spiritual Abuse, Chuck DeGroat (Reviewer: Scott M. Gibson) James: An Exegetical Guide for Preaching and Teaching, Herbert W. Bateman IV and William C. Varner (Reviewer: Brad Baxter) John Through Old Testament Eyes: A Background and Application Commentary, Karen H. Jobes (Reviewer: Matthew Love) Preaching Life-Changing Sermons: Six Steps to Developing and Delivering Biblical Messages, Jesse L. Nelson (Reviewer: Jason Poznich) Colossians and Philemon: A Commentary for Biblical Preaching and Teaching, Adam Copenhaver and Jeffrey D. Arthurs (Reviewer: Christian Schmitt) A Contemporary Handbook for Weddings and Funerals and Other Occasions: Revised and Updated, edited by Aubrey Malphurs, Keith Wilhite, and Dennis Hillman (Reviewer: Gary L. Shultz Jr.) The Preacher’s Wife: The Precarious Power of Evangelical Women Celebrities, Kate Bowler (Reviewer: Scott M. Gibson) Preaching for Culture Change: How the Communication Techniques of Preachers, Rabbis, Companies, and Linguists Can Transform the Culture of Your Church, Jason Esposito (Reviewer: Jeffrey Arthurs) The Women’s Lectionary: Preaching the Women of the Bible throughout the Year, Ashley M. Wilcox (Reviewer: Arica Heald Demme) How to Preach the Prophets for All Their Worth, Andrew G. M. Hamilton (Reviewer: Gregory K. Hollifield) Pandemic Preaching: The Pulpit in a Year Like No Other, David H. Garcia (Reviewer: Kevin Maples) Disastrous Preaching: Preaching in the Aftermath of a Natural Environmental Disaster, Jeff Stanfill (Reviewer: Christian Schmitt) From Ancient Text to Valid Application: A Practical Exploration of Pericopal Theology in Preaching, Josiah D. Boyd (Reviewer: Russell St. John) Circles in the Stream: Index, Identification, and Intertext: Reading and Preaching the Story of Judah in Genesis 37-50, Paul E. Koptak (Reviewer: Stephen Stallard) Jude: An Oral and Performance Commentary, David Seal (Reviewer: Harry Strauss)
Article
Reflections on the Future of the Evangelical Homiletics Society
Walter C. Kaiser, Jr., former president of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary used to quip, “I’m not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet, but I work for a non-profit organization.” I stand before you today not as a prophet, but more as a prompter, someone who’s at the side or even out of sight reminding people of things they already know. Twenty-five years ago, the first Evangelical Homiletics Society was held on the Hamilton, Massachusetts campus of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. We were a smaller group then, maybe about twenty-five persons—men and women looking to set a new direction for evangelical homiletics. Ten months before that first founding meeting of our society, Keith Willhite and I bumped into each other at an Academy of Homiletics meeting in Santa Fe, New Mexico. We proceeded to map out a plan for an organization that more appropriately met our needs theologically—and would open the door not only to professors of preaching in seminaries but also those who taught homiletics in Bible Colleges, as well as pastors who taught preaching adjunctively. We shared this vision with a The Journal of the Evangelical Homiletics Society 107 few others who were with us at the meeting, including Timothy Warren, Endel Lee, Grant Lovejoy, and others. Keith Willhite (1958-2003) and I divided up the work and contacted professors of preaching in evangelical seminaries and Bible Colleges, setting our sights on gathering in October of 1997 at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Desiring wise guidance, we enlisted the distinguished evangelical leader, Dr. Vernon Grounds (1914-2010), at that time Chancellor at Denver Seminary as one of the plenary speakers for that inaugural meeting. He set the tone for the gathering speaking on “Some Reflections on Pulpit Rhetoric.”1 My intention for these few moments is not to bore you with the lore of the long ago and far away beginnings of our society. Instead, as a prompter, I want to remind us of what and who we are as a society as we look to the future. Let me remind ourselves of who we are: The Evangelical Homiletics Society is an academic society formed for the exchange of ideas related to the instruction of biblical preaching. The purpose of the Society is to advance the cause of biblical preaching through the promotion of a biblical-theological approach to preaching; to increase competence for teachers of preaching; to integrate the fields of communication, biblical studies, and theology; to make scholarly contributions to the field of homiletics.2 This statement was carefully crafted in 1997 by those who attended the first meeting—and it is the guide-star for our future as well. This purpose statement will shape my promptings to all of us as we consider the life and work of our society in the coming years. As we look back on twenty-five years, we look forward to God’s intended future for us, and I am here to remind us of who we are as we set our sights on the future.
Article
What’s Our Big Idea? Analyzing the Academic Literary Corpus of the Evangelical Homiletics Society
Over its 25-year history, the scholars of the Evangelical Homiletics Society (EHS) have presented more than 250 papers at its annual conferences and published more than 200 academic articles in its journal. As a whole, what has EHS been writing about, and what has it said? A clear understanding of its past can enable any organization to move responsibly into its future. Using Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) from the field of data science, this paper scrutinizes the entire EHS corpus, describes 17 distinct topics within that corpus, and offers informed suggestions for the society’s future inquiry.
Article
Homiletic of Belonging
Transformation is a major goal of evangelical preaching, but how might people with intellectual disabilities be spiritually transformed through evangelical preaching? One might look to models of disability for answers, but medical models and social models of disability can be problematic for people with ID. Gaps in disability models bring into focus a need that homiletics might address: Belonging. The concept of belonging figures prominently among disability and practical theologians like John Swinton, Brian Brock, and Hans Reinders and in the empirical research of Erik Carter. Interacting with their work, the concept of belonging will be explored as a homiletical model that may contribute to the transformation of listeners with intellectual disabilities. The homiletical goal of transformation among people with intellectual disabilities might be served by a homiletical model of belonging in which 1.) through the preaching of counternarratives, preachers contribute to the transformation of non-disabled parishioners by pointing them to the value of friendship with the intellectually disabled and to the inherent worth of people with ID from creation and in the body of Christ. 2.) by preachers knowing these listeners as friends.
Article
How to Split a Bill: Is there a Transcultural Homiletic for all Peoples, all Places, all Times?
In the Asian culture, when you eat out with your friends, you never split the bill. One person offers to pay for everyone else. This sounds great. But you’re also supposed to fight that person for the bill. In the Anglo culture, in contrast, you always split the bill. But if one person offers to pay for everyone, you happily let that person pay. You’re not going to fight them. I am Asian-Australian. I can choose when to be Asian. I can also choose when to be Anglo. So, when an Asian friend offers to pay for the whole bill, that’s when I choose to be Anglo. I gladly let them pay. Culture is everywhere. It affects how we split a bill. It also affects how we preach—for both the preacher and the audience. The aim of my article is to explore how culture affects our homiletics. Is there a transcultural homiletic—one that transcends all cultures. Or will it be necessarily enculturated— with cultural distinctives?
Article
Engaging a World Homiletic
The theme of this conference to which I will address is, “Engaging a World Homiletic.” The world is a big place. With a population of 7.9 billion in seven continents and consisting of nothing less than 3800 cultures, the world is enigmatic and a big assignment to comprehend.1 Yet, God loves this world and the people in it. We are commissioned to go into the world, preach the gospel and make disciples of its component nations. Paul’s words in Acts 17:24-28 is very profound: “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’”2 From the passage above, there is an indication that God was deliberate in situating every human being where they are and for a purpose: seek, reach him, and find him. The task of preaching and of a preacher stand between these divine designs. Paul later asks in Romans 10:14-15: “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” The preacher, therefore, becomes the connector between men and women in their divine location and the vision of God to see them seek him, reach out for him and find him. A “world homiletic” presupposes that God has placed humans in their different locations in the world and within their cultural and other contexts. He has also raised preachers (and continues to call in places where they do not have one) who would preach to them and ultimately lead them to salvation in the holistic sense. To prosecute this task, I will discuss the basic assumptions in homiletics and Christian preaching. I will examine preaching from an African context and perspective since that is my root. I will situate African preaching in a global context and offer a few considerations to put in place if one is to engage a world homiletic. The idea of “engaging” as we are attempting to do is “to give attention to something” and possibly “participate” in it.3 It is to seek to understand it, to know how to handle and probably involve in it.
Article
Guest Editorial The Comedy, Tragedy, and Ambiguity of Preaching
Included in the purpose statement of our Evangelical Homiletics Society is a line saying we intend “to provide a forum for the identification, study, research, and modeling of biblical preaching.” It is that word “research” that opens up the possibility for all sorts of discussions pertaining to our craft. There is no field of study from which the observant preacher cannot draw some insight that will inform how he or she understands the Bible and the homiletical task. The reason for this has to do with the very nature of God’s revelation. Our God reveals Himself and the truth He embodies in ways both general and special. To find truth anywhere is to discover some aspect of Him. He is the author and sustainer of all life. Life testifies to Him. As biblical preachers, we are called to expound that testimony. Eighteenth-century English writer, art historian, and politician Horace Walpole famously observed, “Life is a comedy to those who think and a tragedy for those who feel.” The Bible looks squarely at life and gives us elements of both and more. The Book itself is a grand comedy. Everything works out right in the end. But it is a comedy interlaced with tragedy. So much goes so desperately wrong before the end comes. It also includes degrees of ambiguity, leaving us to wonder. Preachers who see only comedy in Scripture are apt to deliver sermons that never seem to get at the real pain their hearers experience. They generalize it, though all pain is particular to its sufferer. They gloss it over, dismissing their hearers’ existential distress with talk of their “real” problem that only Jesus can solve. Their thinking is sound enough, but it lacks feeling. Preachers with a keen eye for biblical tragedy are more likely to deliver sermons that are therapeutic or prophetic by nature, depending on their particular personalities and spiritual gifting. They either probe hearers’ pain with great empathy and dispense practical counsel for dealing with it or expose the sin they perceive to lie behind that pain and denounce it with holy zeal. Their feelings are acute, but they can muddle their thinking. Preachers especially attuned to the Bible’s ambiguities deliver more than their fair share of sermons that leave hearers to wonder, looking for meaning and purpose. They walk away pondering, “What did the preacher mean by that? Why do I feel so confused? What am I supposed to do next?” Just as the Bible is a comedy, wrapping a tragedy, and haunted by ambiguity, preaching that is true to Scripture and to life as we know it should be comedic, tragic, or ambiguous depending on a sermon’s text. But how?
Issue Introduction
A World Homiletic
The twenty-fifth anniversary of the Evangelical Homiletics Society was held at Moody Bible Institute 13-15 October 2023. The annual scholars gathering featured the theme, “A World Homiletic.” In planning for the event, the Evangelical Homiletics Society governing board wanted to reflect the worldwide influences of the field of homiletics as the society embarks on the next phase of growth. The intention was to look beyond North America to a global perspective on homiletics. Hence, invitations were issued to two homiletics scholars from two different parts of the world, Ezekiel A. Ajibade from Nigeria, Africa, and Sam Chan from Sydney, Australia. These scholars provided plenary session presentations and served on a panel to engage questions from those in attendance. This issue of the journal includes both Dr. Ajibade’s and Dr. Chan’s thoughtful and challenging addresses.