This collection offers fresh perspectives on British and American preaching in the nineteenth century. Drawing on many religious traditions and addressing a host of cultural and political topics, it will appeal to scholars specializing in any number of academic fields.

“Witham’s highly readable history of the American sermon strongly bolsters the contention that words change minds and alter the course of events.” —Booklist Pivotal moments in U.S. history are indelibly marked by the sermons of the nation’s greatest orators. From colonial times to the present, the sermon has motivated Americans to fight wars as well as fight for peace. Sermons have provoked the mob mentality of witch hunts and blacklists, but they have also stirred activists in the women’s and civil rights movements. A City Upon a Hill tells the story of these powerful words and how they shaped the destiny of a nation. A City Upon a Hill includes the story of Robert Hunt, the first preacher to brave the dangerous sea voyage to Jamestown; Jonathan Mayhew’s “most seditious sermon ever delivered,” which incited Boston’s Stamp Act riots in 1765; early calls for abolition and “Preacher-Captain” Nat Turner’s bloody slave revolt of 1831; Henry Ward Beecher’s sermon at Fort Sumter on the day of Lincoln’s assassination; tent revivalist/prohibitionist Billy Sunday’s “booze sermon”; the challenging words of Martin Luther King Jr., which inspired the civil rights movement; Billy Graham’s moving speeches as “America’s pastor” and spiritual advisor to multiple U.S. presidents; and Jerry Falwell’s legacy of changing the way America does politics. A City Upon a Hill provides a history of the United States as seen through the lens of the preached words—Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish—that inspired independence, constitutional amendments, and military victories, and also stirred our worst prejudices, selfish materialism, and stubborn divisiveness—all in the name of God.

Pilgrim Theology is a map for Christians seeking to better understand the core beliefs of their faith. Even though it's the study of God, theology has a reputation for being dry, abstract, and irrelevant for daily living. But theology is a matter of life and death. It affects the way you think, the decisions you make, the way you relate to God and the world. Reformed theologian and professor Michael Horton wrote Pilgrim Theology as a more accessible companion to his award-winning systematic theology The Christian Faith: widely praised for its thorough treatment of the biblical and historical foundations of Christian doctrine. In Pilgrim Theology, his focus is in putting the study of theology into the daily drama of discipleship. Each chapter will orient you toward a clear understanding about: Who God is. What our relationship is to him. And what our faith in Jesus Christ means in our daily walk as well as in the context of the narrative of Scripture and the community of the church. Through accessible chapters on individual doctrines, as well as frequent "Key Distinction" boxes that succinctly explain the differences between important themes, you'll gain an understanding of doctrines that may have sounded like technical seminary terms to you before: justification, sanctification, glorification, union with Christ, and others. You have a working theology already—an existing understanding of God. It's the goal of Pilgrim Theology to help you examine that understanding more closely and have it challenged and strengthened.