After exploring several aspects of the craft of homily, How to Listen to a Sermon explains how listening to a sermon is different from attending to other forms of public address. This view presupposes a distinctive understanding of the sermonic or preaching event and this is illustrated by two homiletical assemblies —- for "ordinary time" and for "extraordinary times."
These sermons exemplify the author's concern that public religious speech be done with care and with scholarly attention to biblical texts.
These anthologies are framed autobiographically with "Honoring the Gospel" at the beginning, and with "Living an Epiphany" at the end.