Lexington Books
Pages: 202
•
Trim: 6½ x 9
978-1-7936-2075-0 • Hardback • January 2020 • $105.00 • (£81.00)
978-1-7936-2076-7 • eBook • January 2020 • $45.00 • (£35.00)
Eric C. Miller is associate professor of communication studies at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania.
Jonathan J. Edwards is senior instructor of speech communication and rhetoric at the University of South Carolina.
Introduction – The Protestant Sermon in America
Eric C. Miller, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania
Chapter 1 – The Constitutive Sermon: Cotton, Winthrop, and the Long Puritan Legacy
Lauren Lemley, Abilene Christian University
Chapter 2 – The Opportunistic Sermon: Theology, Praxis, and Jerry Falwell
Meridith I. Styer, University of Maryland
Chapter 3 – The Apology Sermon: Jimmy Swaggart’s Mea Culpa
Mark Ward Sr., University of Houston-Victoria
Chapter 4 – The Self-Help Sermon: Prosperity Preaching in Pulpit and Print
Luke Winslow and Daniel Young, San Diego State University
Chapter 5 – The Political Sermon: Jeremiah Wright’s Partisan Paradox
Jonathan J. Edwards, University of South Carolina
Chapter 6 – The Leave Taking Sermon: Mark Driscoll and the Challenge of Authenticity
Robert Stephen Reid, University of Dubuque
Chapter 7 – The Confessional Sermon: Nadia Bolz-Weber’s Full Disclosure
Kelsey W. Minnick, University of Denver
Chapter 8 – The Coming Out Sermon: Brandan Robertson at the National Cathedral
Cory Geraths, Wabash College
Chapter 9 – The Prophetic Sermon: Otis Moss III Gets the Blues
Theon E. Hill, Wheaton College
The contributors to this volume are all reputable scholars in the field of rhetoric and communication theory. They uncover underlying rhetorical strategies in sermons preached by well-known pulpiteers in the United States toward the end of the twentieth and first part of the twenty-first centuries. They are to be applauded for their efforts not to discard the sermon as a critical rhetorical form that has profound influence in the public square. . . . Overall, this book should generate more interest in investigating the powerful influence the Protestant sermon has had on religion and politics in both the public and private sphere. As Miller says in the introduction, we want to “revitalize pulpit rhetoric as an object of critical inquiry”; “Perhaps more than any other rhetorical genre, it shapes worldviews, reinforces values, and informs the civic practice of millions of citizens” (xvii–xviii).
— Homiletic
Delighting the reader with the predictable—the Puritans and Jerry Falwell—and the unexpected—Nadia Bolz-Weber and Otis Moss III—, Eric C. Miller and Jonathan J. Edwards have curated nine ground-breaking essays that introduce fresh critiques of American preaching and preachers. Rhetoric of the Protestant Sermon in America: Pulpit Discourse at the Turn of the Millennium is worthy of attention from scholar-practitioners of rhetoric and homiletics alike. Bravo to Miller and Edwards for this exceptional edited volume from provocative intellectuals.— Daniel S. Brown Jr., Grove City College
Eric C. Miller and Jonathan J. Edwards have crafted a volume that captures why sermons should be studied, and makes plain for scholars and students of rhetoric why this narrative genre matters, even in an era of decreasing religious affiliation and increasing media saturation. The chapters in this book provide rigorous analysis of how sermons are not merely bits of fleeting religious advice, but actually shape civic and public culture writ large. Highly recommend.— Stephanie A. Martin, Southern Methodist University