Preaching – described here in Johan Cilliers’s groundbreaking new book as the heart and soul of the church – requires both constant revision and fidelity to principles. Hence this book’s subtitle: “Revisiting the basic principles of preaching”. From various theoretical and practical viewpoints, Cilliers critically examines the state and future of preaching and deals boldly with contentious issues such as the validity of legalistic and moralistic preaching.

This important document proposes new clarifications and pastoral steps that will serve the pilgrimage toward full unity. It provides the biblical, historical, and theological foundations for a common Catholic-Lutheran understanding of the church. The text carefully links the biblical doctrine of justification to the development of the church in the New Testament as a community of salvation whose structures and ministries serve the church's mission to the human family. A detailed exposition is given to the development of the ministries and structures in the church: councils, dioceses, parishes, bishops, presbyters, and the Petrine ministry. Book jacket.