Walter Brueggemann Westminster John Knox Press, 165 pages Few contemporary scholars are more prolific than Walter Brueggemann. Such profusion often results in boredom for readers who grow weary of familiar themes repackaged with shiny new covers. Gladly, this is not the case for Brueggemann. His students and colleagues continue to gather wisdom from his sermons, essays and comments gathered in collections such as this one. “A Gospel of Hope” is full of readings that the author honestly describes as audacious. In confessing the audaciousness of repeating what one has already said, he points toward the audaciousness of all proclamation that is rooted in the radical claims of the gospel. All preachers and teachers who dare to speak of the hope of God’s presence in troubled times belong to a long line going all the way back to the beginning. Brueggemann is keenly aware of the times we are living in and the necessity for counter-narratives of hope strong enough to shape the people of … [Read more...]
Barbara Oakley
“Understanding doesn’t build fluency; instead, fluency builds understanding. In fact, I believe that true understanding of a complex subject comes only from fluency.” — Barbara Oakley, professor of engineering at Oakland University in Michigan, on how people learn (writing in Nautilus) … [Read more...]
Preaching Adverbially
F. Russell Mitman Eerdmans, 192 pages Reviewed by Sharon K. Youngs Russell Mitman poses the question himself: Why another book on preaching? His answer, in short: “to rescue ‘preaching’ from the narrows of ‘sermonizing.’” In his latest book, Mitman, who has served as a United Church of Christ parish pastor and conference minister, builds on his initial work from 17 years earlier in “Worship in the Shape of Scripture.” There, he asserted that liturgics and homiletics are “married arts.” Here, he maintains that preaching the Word of God happens within and throughout an entire worship service, which leads him to write as much about liturgy as he does preaching. In fact, Mitman argues that lifting a sermon out of the context of corporate worship “begs the question as to whether it really should be called a ‘sermon’ at all.” Central to Mitman’s approach is the grammatical difference between adjectives and adverbs. Adjectives modify nouns, while adverbs modify verbs, adjectives … [Read more...]
Preaching the Luminous Word: Biblical Sermons and Homiletical Essays
Ellen F. Davis Eerdmans, 356 pages Reviewed by Barbara Wheeler Presbyterian pastors face a dilemma in the pulpit. They learned from seminary professors that God is best represented by exegetically-based sermons that hew closely to the order, structure and language of biblical texts. Pastors’ observations and experience in churches, however, have taught them that congregants prefer something less formal: sermons that snatch a general theme from Scripture and then lean heavily on anecdotes and practical advice. In a day when many members of mainline Protestant churches know little about the Bible, edifying them with serious teaching seems like the right thing to do. But, as a movie mogul once said, if the people won’t come, you can’t stop them. Ellen Davis’ sermons – 50 are collected in this volume – are resounding proof that the choice between biblical and interesting is a false one. Her sermons are riveting and, like those of her favorite preacher John Donne, “entirely focused … [Read more...]
Wounds Are Where Light Enters: Stories of God’s Intrusive Grace
Walter Wangerin Jr. Zondervan, 176 pages Walter Wangerin is well-known for his collections of stories, including the award-winning “The Book of the Dun Cow” and “Ragman.” For many years he served as an inner-city pastor and from that experience many of his stories arose. Readers familiar with those stories will recognize his particular voice and vision in this new collection. The stories are drawn from ordinary experiences with his family and others. Yet in these events, the light of God’s grace is revealed. This is Wangerin’s gift: simple stories that point to the extraordinary presence of God. The result is a heightened anticipation of God in world. Where will grace next be revealed? These stories cause you to enter that search and ask that question. They are divided into nine sections of two stories each; taken together they comprise a theological compendium of grace revealed in ordinary life. The cynic might describe the stories as too simple and predictable, bordering on … [Read more...]
Fearless Dialogues: A New Movement for Justice
Gregory C. Ellison II Westminster John Knox Press, 160 pages Reviewed by Angela Williams “Baby, I don’t know how to change the world, but I can change the three feet around me.” These words from Gregory Ellison’s Aunt Dotty inspire the root of a new movement for justice: “Fearless Dialogues.” Weaving poetry, prose and theory, Ellison introduces a powerful new approach to having difficult conversations with people from all walks of life. Such a “fearless dialogue” does not mean a conversation without fear. Instead fear + less is defined as a compound word that names the fears that come with having difficult dialogues in hopes of lessening the impact of those fears. Approaching unlikely partners from this place of humility creates space for radical relational change. More intriguing than a basic facilitator’s guide, this book invites the reader to join the dialogue and creates a full-body experience with each turn of the page. This blend of art and science seeks to overcome the … [Read more...]
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