The Four Voices of Preaching

Sermons preached before a congregation are only one way people hear messages of faith. Whether the listener is seated in a pew or listening to a podcast or a book about faith, most of the faith-talk people hear is shaped by a speaker's faith sensibility. And those faith sensibilities can generally be distinguished as four distinctly different "voices" of preaching. Understanding what these voices are, how they differ in purpose as well as design, and how excellence in each voice can make for greater authenticity in communicating faith is what this book is about. The author canvases the tradition of American preaching called homiletics by drawing together religious, social, and cultural concerns that have given birth to each new North American way of preaching about faith in God. The book provides a map of classic and contemporary homileticians and what their understanding looks like in communication practice. It is a book about why preaching and teaching the Gospel matters in whatever form it takes. It is a book for those who need a map.