Preaching of Jesus: Gospel Proclamation, Then and Now

By William F. Brosend II

Book Overview

Using the findings of historical Jesus studies, William Brosend asks, what is the rhetoric that characterized the preaching of Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels, and how may today's preaching benefit from it? This book for preachers and students of preaching helps the reader see four distinct aspects of the rhetoric of Jesus: dialogical (preaching in response to challenges and questions); proclamatory (making bold and authoritative statements); occasionally self-referential (though less so than in the Fourth Gospel); and persistently figurative (illustrating his message through metaphor). Brosend spends one chapter on each of these methods, closing each chapter with a sermon that models that approach and his analysis of it. Sample sermons are by well-known preachers including Fred Craddock, Michael Curry, Tom Long, and Barbara Brown Taylor. Brosend concludes with the implications for modern preaching and a sermon of his own.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0664232159
• ISBN13: 9780664232153
• Release Date: February 2010
• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
• Length: 200 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Well Done!

A disclaimer right up front. The author of this book is my brother! And I could not be more proud. As a scholar and teacher, the author is known by many as excellent. And after many years of preaching himself, he has a special sense of what the preacher needs to make herself aware in sermon preparation. I am purchasing copies of the book for all of the preachers I know. The book needs to become required reading for all seminarians planning to preach and recommended for all current clergy in the pulpit. I encourage all of us in the pews to share this book with the preachers in our lives.