Every Sunday all over the world people rise up and claim to speak in the name of God. It is an astonishing thing to do and an astonishing claim to make. It is small wonder that the sermon has been the focus of debate, discussion and investigation. It has been dismissed as irrelevant in today's culture and has become the butt of numerous jokes and caricatures. Yet the claim persists that these human words in some way can become God's message to these hearers. This collection of twenty-nine articles by international experts in the area of homiletics coincides with the revival of interest in preaching over the last twenty-five years. It is practical without being merely tips for preachers; and it offers the necessary theoretical discussion for anyone who wants to take the art of preaching seriously. No important issue has been omitted and, taken as a whole, the book constitutes a first class introduction to the principles, processes, context and theology of preaching. Contributors include: Walter Brueggemann, David Buttrick, Fred Craddock, Edward Farley, John Killinger, Richard Lischer, Thomas Long, Elaine Lawless, Jolyon Mitchell, Cheryl Sanders and Thomas Troeger.

Contents: Preface; Foreword, Rt Revd Dr N.T. Wright; Six feet above contradiction? An overview, David Day. Part 1 Trends In Preaching: The distance we have travelled: changing trends in preaching, Thomas G. Long; Preaching as reimagination, Walter Brueggemann. Part 2 Preaching Scripture: The use of Scripture in contemporary preaching, Thomas G. Long; Preaching the epistles, David Day; An imaginative 'Or', Walter Brueggemann; Preaching the Bible and preaching the gospel, Edward Farley; Psychological type and biblical hermeneutics: SIFT method of preaching, Leslie J. Francis. Part 3 Structure and Communication: From exegesis to sermon: 1 Corinthians 12:4-6, Fred B. Craddock; Pawn to king four: sermon introduction and communicational design, Thomas G. Long; Preaching and narrative, Peter K. Stevenson; Eleven ways of preaching a non-sermon, Dwight E. Stevenson. Part 4 Personal Qualities and the Preacher: Emerging new standards in the evaluation of effective preaching, Thomas H. Troeger; Preaching and silence, John Killinger; Ethics in the pulpit, Alvin C. Rueter; The Lenten preacher, David Day; Martin Luther King, Jr's preaching as a resource for preachers, Richard Lischer. Part 5 Story, Parable and Imagination: Preaching pictures, Jolyon Mitchell; On preaching a parable: the problem of homiletic method, David G. Buttrick; Story and image in sermon illustration, Richard L. Eslinger; Imagining a sermon, Richard Lischer. Part 6 Preaching and Worship: A sketchbook: preaching and worship, David G. Buttrick; African-American preaching: the future of a rich tradition, Henry H. Mitchell; Homily or eulogy? The dilemma of funeral preaching, John Allyn Melloh. Part 7 The Woman as Preacher: The woman as preacher, Cheryl J. Sanders; Gender and the aesthetic of preaching, Virginia Purvis-Smith; Rescripting their lives and narratives: spiritual life stories of pentecostal women preachers, Elaine J. Lawless. Part 8 Effectiveness and Evaluation: Preaching that drives people from the