Reading for Preaching
The Preacher in Conversation with Storytellers, Biographers, Poets, and Journalists
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- £15.99
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- £15.99
Publisher Description
In Reading for Preaching Cornelius Plantinga makes a striking claim: preachers who read widely will most likely become better preachers.
Plantinga -- himself a master preacher -- shows how a wide reading program can benefit preachers. First, he says, good reading generates delight, and the preacher who enters the world of delight goes with God. Good reading can also help tune the preacher's ear for language -- his or her primary tool. General reading can enlarge the preacher's sympathies for people and situations that she or he had previously known nothing about. And, above all, the preacher who reads widely has the chance to become wise.
This beautifully written book will benefit not just preachers but anyone interested in the wisdom to be derived from reading.
Works that Plantinga interacts with in the book include
The Kite Runner, by Khaled HosseiniEnrique's Journey, by Sonia NazarioSilence, by Shusaku Endo"How Much Land Does a Man Need?" by Leo Tolstoy"Narcissus Leaves the Pool" by Joseph EpsteinLes Miserables, by Victor Hugo. . . and many more!
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
To the preacher's weekly challenge of needing "something intelligent to say on an intimidating list of topics raised by biblical texts," Plantinga, systematic theologian and former president of Calvin College, presents practical and spiritual motivation for cultivating a habit of sophisticated reading. Contending that preachers have as much to learn from Victor Hugo, Robert Frost, and Thomas Friedman as from Augustine, Calvin, and Barth, Plantinga argues that such exposure not only tunes the preacher's ear and offers choice sermon illustrations, but aids in the pursuit of wisdom. Urging caution with illustrations to avoid emotional manipulation, and careful consideration of congregational context and one's own pastoral identity, he reviews excerpts from sermons of well-known preachers, examining the "attentiveness and reverence" of Barbara Brown Taylor's writing; Will Willimon's use of "a single, quotable line"; and William Sloane Coffin's clever quip at Yale, which might have flopped in a different setting. Plantinga's sympathetic understanding of the preacher's "daunting task," combined with his concrete guidance for enhancing homiletic skill, makes this a valuable resource for new and veteran preachers alike.
