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Recent Books on Preaching and Preachers
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 November 2011
Extract
The books that have been written on the preparation and delivery of sermons are usually more helpful to ministers of some experience than to the students in divinity schools for whose instruction they were first of all intended. The man who is already a preacher, and who is also open-minded and willing to learn, sifts out from the detail of the numerous divisions and subdivisions of such books much that is suggestive and stimulating; his own experience interprets the precepts and warnings that are given, confirms their wisdom, and brings home their application. To the average student, on the other hand, the elaborate analysis easily becomes confusing; the sermon is made to appear a thing highly technical, if not artificial, and, in spite of any protest to the contrary which the book may contain, an end in itself instead of the means to an end. Learning to preach is like learning to do anything else. The rules for the beginner must be few and simple, and refinement and enrichment of method must come as part of the preacher's general growth, and with the gain in confidence and freedom which should naturally result from the continued practice of his calling. Many students would find it easier to begin to preach, and many preachers would be more effective, if they could understand from the first that the rules which govern the method of the sermon differ in no way from those of any other form of persuasive public speech.
- Type
- Research Article
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- Copyright
- Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1913
References
1 Preparing to Preach, by David R. Breed, D.D., Professor of Homiletics in Western Theological Seminary, Pittsburgh, Pa. George H. Doran Company, 1911.
2 The Preacher, his Person, Message, and Method. A Book for the Classroom and Study. By Arthur S. Hoyt, Professor of Homiletics and Sociology in the Auburn Theological Seminary. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1909.
3 The Work of Preaching. The Macmillan Company, 1905.
4 The Christian Minister and his Duties, by J. Oswald Dykes, M.A., D.D., Principal Emeritus of Westminster College, Cambridge. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1909.
5 Representative Modern Preachers, by Lewis O. Brastow, D.D., Professor of Practical Theology in Yale University. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1904.
6 The Modern Pulpit. A Study of Homiletic Sources and Characteristics. The Macmillan Company, 1906.
7 The Glory of the Ministry. Paul's Exultation in Preaching, by A. T. Robertson, M.A., D.D., Professor of New Testament Interpretation in the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Ky. Fleming H. Revell Company, 1911.
8 The Minister and the Spiritual Life, by Frank W. Gunsaulus, D.D., LL.D., Minister of Central Church, Chicago. Fleming H. Revell Company, 1911.
9 The Theology of a Preacher, by Lynn Harold Hough. New York: Eaton & Mains, 1912.
10 The Church of To-Day. A Plea, by Joseph Henry Crooker. Boston: The Pilgrim Press, 1908. The Church of Tomorrow. The Pilgrim Press, 1911.
11 Scientific Management in the Churches, by Shailer Mathews, Dean of the Divinity School of the University of Chicago. The University of Chicago Press, 1912.
12 The Educational Ideal in the Ministry. The Lyman Beecher Lectures at Yale University in the Year 1908, by William Herbert Perry Faunce, President of Brown University. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1908.