Full Description
In Rhetoric of the Protestant Sermon in America: Pulpit Discourse at the Turn of the Millennium, ten scholars analyze notable sermons from the fifty-year span between 1965 and 2015, during which the Protestant sermon has undergone significant change in the United States. Contributors examine how this turbulent time period witnessed a variety of important shifts in the arguments, evidences, and rhetorical strategies employed by contemporary preachers. Because religious practice is inextricably tangled in the culture, politics, and economy of its historical situation, the public expression of a faith is certain to move with the times. In their treatment of race, sex, gender, class, and citizenship, sermons apply ancient texts to current events and controversies, often to revealing effect. This collection, thoughtfully edited by Eric C. Miller and Jonathan J. Edwards, demonstrates how the genre of the Protestant sermon has evolved—or resisted evolution—across the years. Scholars of religion, rhetoric, communication, sociology, and cultural studies will find this book particularly useful.
Contents
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
