Forty of the best sermons of the famous New York City Protestant minister, selected by C.L. Wallis and issued in honor of his 80th birthday.

Comprising the sermons preached by William Sloane Coffin while he was senior minister at the prestigious Riverside Church in New York City, The Collected Sermons of William Sloane CoffinThe Riverside Years captures the renowned preacher and social activist at work: ministering to American hostages in Iran, supporting AIDS awareness, and rallying his audiences to battle poverty and nuclear proliferationall the while celebrating marriages, baptisms, and Mothers Days and mourning the loss of loved ones, including his own son. In each of these brilliant and painstakingly crafted sermons, Coffin combined his deep love of Scripture and passionate commitment to peace and justice with his unparalleled gift for the spoken word. While also revealing the personal and pastoral dimensions of ministry, each sermon provides a powerful example of lifes well-accomplished mission: to challenge the conscience of a nation. For those who knew William Sloane Coffin, these sermons will be a treasured remembrance. For those who regret not knowing him, they provide the best of introductions. And for those who as yet have escaped Coffins influence, they are superb testimony to the great potential of ministry, the possibilities of hope and determination, and the remarkable power of one human voice.

The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures in the Worship of the Christian Church is a multivolume study by Hughes Oliphant Old that canvasses the history of preaching from the words of Moses at Mount Sinai through modern times. In Volume 1, The Biblical Period, Old begins his survey by discussing the roots of the Christian ministry of the Word in the worship of Israel. He then examines the preaching of Christ and the Apostles. Finally, Old looks at the development and practice of Christian preaching in the second and third centuries, concluding with the ministry of Origen.

A major figure in American religious and cultural history, Fosdick was famous as a preacher, a pacifist and a champion of civil rights. He was also the author of forty-seven books.

Where have all the prophets gone? And why do preachers seem to shy away from prophetic witness? Astute preacher Leonora Tisdale considers these vexing questions while providing guidance and encouragement to pastors who want to recommit themselves to the task of prophetic witness. With a keen sensitivity to pastoral contexts, Tisdale's work is full of helpful suggestions and examples to help pastors structure and preach prophetic sermons, considered by many to be one of the most difficult tasks pastors are called to undertake.

An illustrated history of an important cultural institute in NYC - not just religiously influential.

It was from the pulpit of the Riverside Church that Martin Luther King, Jr., first publicly voiced his opposition to the Vietnam War, that Nelson Mandela addressed U.S. church leaders after his release from prison, and that speakers as diverse as Cesar Chavez, Jesse Jackson, Desmond Tutu, Fidel Castro, and Reinhold Niebuhr lectured church and nation about issues of the day. The greatest of American preachers have served as senior minister, including Harry Emerson Fosdick, Robert J. McCracken, Ernest T. Campbell, William Sloane Coffin, Jr., and James A. Forbes, Jr., and at one time the New York Times printed reports of each Sunday's sermon in its Monday morning edition. For seven decades the church has served as the premier model of Protestant liberalism in the United States. Its history represents the movement from white Protestant hegemony to a multiracial and multiethnic church that has been at the vanguard of social justice advocacy, liberation theologies, gay and lesbian ministries, peace studies, ethnic and racial dialogue, and Jewish-Christian relations. A collaborative effort by a stellar team of scholars, The History of the Riverside Church in the City of New York offers a critical history of this unique institution on Manhattan's Upper West Side, including its cultural impact on New York City and beyond, its outstanding preachers, and its architecture, and assesses the shifting fortunes of religious progressivism in the twentieth century.