Leading Scholar Offers a Theological Approach to Preaching This primer on the ministry of preaching connects reading the Bible theologically with preparing and preaching sermons. Hans Boersma explains that exegesis involves looking beyond the historical and literal meaning of the text to the hidden sacramental reality of Christ himself, which enables us to reach the deepest meaning of the Scriptures. He provides models for theological sermons along with commentary on exegetical and homiletical method and explains that patristic exegesis is relevant for reading the Bible today. The book includes a foreword by Eugene H. Peterson.

Creative preaching can help you move the sacraments to the center of your congregation's spirituality by making scripture, personal experience, and the sacraments intersect in such a way that a wealth of meanings surfaces. Satterlee and Ruth seek to expand the range of meanings and associations people bring to the sacraments. They examine in-depth how theology, scripture, context, and timing relate to effective sacramental preaching. Six sample sermons are included: "In Whom Do You Place Your Trust?" (baptismal sermon by Stephen Castleberry) "The Water of Life" (baptismal sermon by Heichler) "The Kiss of Peace" (exchange of peace sermon by Craig A. Satterlee) "The Ultimate Business Luncheon" (Communion sermon by Lester Ruth) "Crumbs Under the Table" (Communion sermon by Cathy Felber) "A Short, Multisensory Baptismal Sermon" (adapted from Ambrose) Recommended for pastors as a practical guide for preparing sermons that will make the great truths of God visible and tangible in the sacraments. Designed especially for clergy, chaplains, and catechists.

The reform of the liturgy has dramatically changed the way Roman Catholics and all Christians understand their worship. The arena of the encounter has shifted from a passive experience of observation of the great Mysteries to one that invites active participation on many levels. Yet, the imagination of many who preach, preside, and gather to worship continues to be shaped by a passive model as well as by the notion of sacramental activity as a product to be received or given. In The Holy Preaching, Janowiak deepens the discussion of Christ's presence in the Word by offering reflection on the disparity between the theology and the practice of preaching and some explanation as to why that disparity exists.

Moore asserts that Christian vocation, and the teaching vocation in particular, can be best understood as sacramental, mediating the grace of God through ordinary creation for the sanctification of human life and the well-being of all creation. She develops her argument through three important factors: a historical-theological analysis of the Christian sacraments and sacramentality; a phenomenological study of teaching events; and a description of six sacramental movements and corresponding teaching practices informed by Jewish-Christian traditions and Eucharistic practices. The nine detailed chapters include: Searching for the Sacred; Sacred Teaching; Education as Sacrament; Expecting the Unexpected; Remembering the Dismembered; Seeking Reversals; Giving Thanks; Nourishing Life; Reconstructing Community and Repairing the World; and Mapping the Future of Sacramental Teaching. "Teaching as a Sacramental Act" is ideal for students, pastors, Christian educators, spiritual directors, and pastoral caregivers who want to rethink and reshape the teaching ministry of the church.

Christians tend to divide into three camps: evangelical, sacramental, and pentecostal. But must we choose between them? Drawing on the New Testament, Christian history, and years of experience in Christian ministry, Gordon T. Smith argues that the church not only can be all three, but in fact must be all three in order to truly be the church.

In the decades leading up to the Second Vatican Council, the movement of nouvelle théologie caused great controversy in the Catholic Church and remains a subject of vigorous scholarly debate today. In Nouvelle théologie and Sacramental Ontology Hans Boersma argues that a return to mystery was the movement's deepest motivation. Countering the modern intellectualism of the neo-Thomist establishment, the nouvelle theologians were convinced that a ressourcement of the Church Fathers and of medieval theology would point the way to a sacramental reintegration of nature and the supernatural. In the context of the loss suffered by both Catholics and Protestants in the de-sacramentalizing of modernity, Boersma shows how the sacramental ontology of nouvelle théologie offers a solid entry-point into ecumenical dialogue. The volume begins by setting the historical context for nouvelle théologie with discussions of the influence of significant theologians and philosophers like Möhler, Blondel, Maréchal, and Rousselot. The exposition then moves to the writings of key thinkers of the ressourcement movement including de Lubac, Bouillard, Balthasar, Chenu, Daniélou, Charlier, and Congar. Boersma analyses the most characteristic elements of the movement: its reintegration of nature and the supernatural, its reintroduction of the spiritual interpretation of Scripture, its approach to Tradition as organically developing in history, and its communion ecclesiology that regarded the Church as sacrament of Christ. In each of these areas, Boersma demonstrates how the nouvelle theologians advocated a return to mystery by means of a sacramental ontology.

A rare and important study offering a complete review of John Calvin's preaching activity, purpose, method, and style. Parker's work includes Calvin's theological considerations, expository methods, applications of Scripture to the needs of his congregation, and his views of the preacher's office, duty and the congregation's active participation. Appendixes.

Moralizing about justice from the pulpit is easy. Explore what it means to genuinely preach justice, and to teach congregations what it means to put justice at the heart and soul of the church's mission and witness.

Drawing on performance studies and sacramental and liturgical theology, Ruthanna B. Hooke develops a theology of proclamation grounded in the body’s experience of preaching. The author explores the claim that preaching is a sacramental event of communion with the triune God by comparing the steps involved in voice production with the fourfold shape of the Eucharist. This comparison yields a description of preaching as an event of self-offering that allows space for the humanity of the preacher and as an encounter with the Holy Spirit that is communal and prophetic. Preaching draws participants into Christ’s dying and rising, and hence into a mode of power known in vulnerability. Calling hearers into the eschatological event of the resurrection, preaching inherently moves toward proclamation on political and ethical issues. Hooke uses this theological framework to offer ways of preaching on environmental crisis and on racism. The author calls preachers to embodied engagement with preaching and describes a way for preachers to bear witness to Jesus Christ not only in the content of their proclamation, but in their way of being in the preaching event.

Christian proclamation, says Dietrich Bonhoeffer, is the living Christ walking among the people. Preachers know that Jesus is the living Word, and that the Spirit of Jesus animates the preaching event. Preaching is an epiclesis, an invocation of the Holy Spirit over God's holy people. As such, it must touch their imagination. Pastro proposes that preaching is the living ecclesial presence of Jesus Christ, Sacramental Word of the God of the poor. The Word speaks from the imagination of the poor-the economic poor, but also the "new poor" of the twenty-first century: entire indigenous cultures, women, those marginalized because of their sexuality, undocumented immigrants in dominant cultures, and many others. All Christian preachers in every context are called to solidarity with the poor.