This book is a call for preachers to learn the importance of keeping their eyes on the vision of Jesus and biblical prophets when preaching - that of doing justice, caring for others, and being equitable. The book attempts to make a biblical argument for the importance and the content of prophetic preaching, and argues that the issue is not preaching from a text taken from the prophetic corpus but preaching on the themes that echoed over and over from the biblical prophets themselves.

The Hebrew prophets of ancient Israel strove to convey God’s point of view to the people and the powers at a time when injustice, deceit, malfeasance, and crushing the poor and the oppressed was prominent—much like today! The prophets spoke courageously and emphatically about God’s profound and unrelenting concern and compassion for human beings. Much influenced by the theology of prophecy developed by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, this book discusses the nature, meaning, and relevance of ethical prophecy at a time when democracy—in the United States of America and elsewhere—is under vicious assault from the religious and secular right and authoritarian politicians who openly flirt with and support murderous dictators, sexism, homophobia, racial bigotry, anti-Semitism, and hatred of Muslims both in word and practice. An examination of the contributions of eight powerful personalities from the period of American slavery through the post-civil rights era—Angelina Grimké, Ida B. Wells, Abraham J. Heschel, James Baldwin, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Óscar Romero, and Alice Walker—offers a recipe for addressing this state of affairs.

The Old Testament prophetic books play a key role in revealing God’s plan of salvation. They occupy a significant portion of the biblical canon, similar in size to the entire New Testament. Yet most believers stay clear of this part of Scripture. They avoid traveling through this forest of oracles and visions. Many preachers also struggle to navigate this unfamiliar territory. Preachers feel much more at ease unpacking the intricate arguments of the Pauline epistles or following the thrilling adventures of biblical narratives rather than exploring the prophetic books. The church, however, needs to hear and respond to the beauty, depth, and relevance of the prophetic message. This book not only provides convincing reasons for preaching the prophets today but also offers concrete guidelines to empower preachers (small group leaders, youth workers, etc.) to communicate the message of the prophets with hermeneutical precision, theological depth, genre sensitivity, and pastoral pulse. This book motivates and equips preachers to travel with confidence through this uncharted territory and to help God’s people enjoy the scenery of this part of God’s word.

Beginning with a conversation prompted by African American scholars like Dr. Alvin Poussaint of Harvard Medical School in 2007, to the current Black Lives Matter movement, there has been much debate about what led to the deaths of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown, among others, as well as other systemic challenges that undermine black thriving. Anthony Bradley has assembled a team of scholars and religious leaders to provide a distinctly Christian perspective on what is needed for black communities to thrive from within. In addition to the social and structural issues that must be addressed, within black communities there are opportunities for social change based on God's vision for human flourishing. Covering topics like the black family, hip-hop, mental health, mentoring women, masculinity, and the church, this book will open your eyes to fresh ways to participate in solutions that will truly set black America free. Although the Black Lives Matter movement keeps the church on the margins, the authors in this volume believe that enduring change cannot happen unless God speaks directly to these issues in light of the gospel. With contributions from: Vincent Bacote Bruce Fields Rev. Howard Brown Ralph C. Watkins Rev. Eric M. Mason Rev. Lance Lewis Rev. Anthony Carter Ken Jones Natalie Haslem Rev. Ken Jones Rihana Mason Yvonne RB-Banks

In When Prophets Preach: Leadership and the Politics of the Pulpit, Jay Augustine urges twenty-first-century preachers to speak openly against social injustice, establishing such preaching as a key component of prophetic leadership. Beginning with the premise that the church was birthed to address salvation in the "kingdom-to-come" and social justice in the "kingdom-at-hand," Augustine presents prophetic preaching as part of the ministry of reconciliation Jesus left to the church. Addressing topics such as abusive immigration policies and racial injustices, he urges the church to return to its foundation of prophetic leadership as exemplified not only by Jesus but by the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament apostles. When Prophets Preach demonstrates that faithfulness to this ministry requires preachers to break the pulpit silence. Then the church can lead in bridging social and ethnic gaps among its members. It can show society at large how to heal many of the social, economic, and political divisions in our world, the very rifts that underscore the need for social justice ministries and that necessitate prophetic preaching.

The Old Testament prophets are a neglected treasury of biblical examples for pastoral preaching. Too often the prophets are misunderstood as focusing on future or social justice issues. This book shows that the prophets are essentially preachers--very good ones--whom we must learn from. By comparing recent rhetorical analysis of the prophets to some of the best of current preaching literature, this book shows that the prophets preached the way that we ought to preach. It will help you to hear the prophets the same way that a pastor benefits from listening to a seasoned and exceptionally gifted preacher. We can benefit not only from what the prophets say but how they say it. By seeing how the prophets grab and keep their listeners, how they enhance clarity and relevancy, how they make truth come alive and how they persevere in their ministry, you too can learn to preach like the prophets.

The purpose of this study is to understand the symbolic acts that are performed by the prophets in the Old Testament. What do these characters intend with their various symbolic acts? Viberg attempts to show that these prophetic acts are part and parcel of their prophetic message, nonverbal communication that extends the rhetorical arsenal these prophets made use of in action, as they struggle to persuade. The task of this study is accomplished through an exhaustive exegetical analysis of the relevant texts, with a particular focus on the symbolism involved. The goal is to formulate the purpose and function of these acts, together with a description of the acts and how they have been construed by means of various forms of symbolism. The theoretical approach works on three levels: first, the text that describes the symbolic act; second, the performance of the act within the textual world; and third, the symbolic reference or representation of the act within the symbolic world of the act. These symbolic acts are also set in the larger contexts of nonverbal communication and the ancient Near East.

Given that Pope Francis is a popular global religious leader, and in the light of the lessons drawn from the nature, meaning, and functions of Israel's prophets, this tripartite work historically, pastorally, and theologically examines whether, and how Francis' teaching, visits, outreach to the poor, preaching, and recent biblically based writings (Lumen Fidei, Evangelii Gaudium, Amoris Laetitia, Laudato Si', Gaudete et Exsultate, Letters, and Messages) have had any prophetic effects or impact on contemporary society.

The Latter Prophets--Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Book of the Twelve--comprise a fascinating collection of prophetic oracles, narratives, and vision reports from ancient Israel and Judah. Spanning centuries and showing evidence of compositional growth and editorial elaboration over time, these prophetic books offer an unparalleled view into the cultural norms, theological convictions, and political disputes of Israelite communities caught in the maelstrom of militarized conflicts with the empires of ancient Egypt, Babylonia, and Persia. Instructive for scholar and student alike, The Oxford Handbook of the Prophets features wide-ranging discussion of ancient Near Eastern social and cultic contexts; exploration of focused topics such as the persona of the prophet and the problem of violence in prophetic rhetoric; sophisticated historical and literary analysis of key prophetic texts; issues in reception history, from these texts' earliest reinterpretations at Qumran to Christian appropriations in contemporary homiletics; feminist, materialist, and postcolonial readings engaging the insights of influential contemporary theorists; and more. The diversity of interpretive approaches, clarity of presentation, and breadth of expertise represented here will make this Handbook indispensable for research and teaching on the Latter Prophets.

The 17 essays in this volume fall into four sections: Early Judaism and its Environment; Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah; Wisdom, Scribes and Scribalism; and Theology of the Hebrew Bible. They are accompanied by a biographical sketch (by Robert Wilken) and a bibliography of Blenkinsopp's writings. Joseph Blenkinsopp is one of the foremost Catholic biblical scholars of his generation. Born in England, he has taught in the USA since 1968. The essays in this volume contributed by colleagues, friends and students reflect the many interests of Joseph Blenkinsopp's innovative and multi-faceted scholarship.