While many American religious historians have focused on a few mainstream black Christian thinkers from across the twentieth century, the story of Samuel DeWitt Proctor has remained obscured. Yet his voice is essential to understanding the black social gospel. In the complex mix of voices from the Religious Right, Protestant fundamentalism, and black liberation theology, Proctor brought black middle class understanding of America life and contributed a voice that was Black, Christian, and American. Bond's exploration of the life of Samuel DeWitt Proctor adds a crucial piece to our understanding of twentieth-century American church history. Book jacket.

As a distinguished pastor, educator, and public servant, Samuel DeWitt Proctor made it his mission to serve American life by fighting racism. In The Imposing Preacher, Adam Bond shows how Proctor, as the product of a prophetic black church tradition, a social gospel-laced liberal Protestantism, and a black middle-class integrationist ethos, envisioned a pulpit activism through which the United States could realize an integrated civil society and was able to anticipate themes articulated by black religious movements of the late twentieth century. Proctor presents an alternative model of religious and social leadership and for studies of African American religion.

Exodus Preaching is the first of its kind. It is an exploration of the African American prophetic rhetorical traditions in a manner that makes features of these traditions relevant to a broad audience beyond the African American traditions. It provides readers a composite picture of the nature, meaning, and relevance of prophetic preaching as spoken Word of justice and hope in a society of growing pluralism and the world-shaping phenomenon of racial, economic and cultural diversity. African American preachers have distinctively invested great symbolic significance in the Exodus story, the messianic witness of Jesus, and the prophetic literature for developing and shaping prophetic sermons. Kenyatta Gilbert demonstrates how four distinctive features of discourse can shape sermon preparation, for effective preaching in a period of intense social change, racial unrest, and violence. Gilbert includes dozens of practical suggestions and five practical exercises to equip the reader for preaching in new ways and in new environments. He offers an holistic approach, fully equipping the reader with the theological and practical resources needed to preach prophetically.

The third and final volume in the first comprehensive history of Black social Christianity, by the “greatest theological ethicist of the twenty-first century” (Michael Eric Dyson) The Black social gospel is a tradition of unsurpassed and ongoing importance in American life, argues Gary Dorrien in his groundbreaking trilogy on the history of Black social Christianity. This concluding volume, an interpretation of the tradition since the early 1970s, follows Dorrien’s award-winning The New Abolition: W. E. B. Du Bois and the Black Social Gospel and Breaking White Supremacy: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Black Social Gospel. Beginning in the shadow of Martin Luther King Jr., Dorrien examines the past fifty years of this intellectual and activist tradition, interpreting its politics, theology, ethics, social criticism, and social justice organizing. He argues that Black social Christianity is today an intersectional tradition of discourse and activist religion that interrelates liberation theology, womanist theology, antiracist politics, LGBTQ+ theory, cultural criticism, progressive religion, broad-based interfaith organizing, and global solidarity politics. A Darkly Radiant Vision features in-depth discussions of Andrew Young, Jesse Jackson, Samuel DeWitt Proctor, Gayraud Wilmore, James Cone, Cornel West, Katie Geneva Cannon, Stacey Floyd-Thomas, Traci Blackmon, William J. Barber II, Raphael G. Warnock, and many others.

The Introduction to African American Preaching is an important, groundbreaking book. This book acknowledges African American preaching as an academic discipline, and invites all students and preachers into a scholarly, dynamic, and useful exploration of the topic. Author Frank Thomas opens with a “bus tour” study of African American preaching. He shows how African American preaching has gradually moved from an almost exclusively oral to an oral/written tradition. Readers will gain insight into the history of the study of the African American preaching tradition, and catch the author’s enthusiasm for it. Next Thomas traces the relationship between homiletics and rhetoric in Western preaching, demonstrating how African American preaching is inherently theological and rhetorical. He then explores the question, “what is black preaching?” Thomas introduces the reader to methods of “close reading” and “ideological criticism.” And then demonstrates how to use these methods, using a sermon by Gardner Calvin Taylor as his example. The next chapter considers the question, “what is excellence in black preaching?” The next chapter seeks to create bridges and dialogue within the field of homiletics, and in particular, the Euro-American homiletic tradition. The goal of this chapter is to clearly demonstrate connections between the African American preaching tradition and the field of homiletics. Thomas next turns to questions about the relevancy of the church to the Millennial generation. Specifically, how will the African American church remain relevant to this generation, which is so deeply concerned with social justice?

The art of preaching is one of the most important acts of ministry. The sermon serves as a transformative force—imparting knowledge, challenging beliefs, and convicting hearts. Recognizing the importance of this sacred task, Handbook of Contemporary Preaching, 2nd Edition equips pastors with invaluable tools and insights, enabling them to prepare and deliver sermons that resonate deeply with their congregations. In a single volume, editor Michael Duduit compiles the insight, methods, and experience of over fifty celebrated preachers, including R. Albert Mohler, Hershael York, Robert Smith Jr., Bryan Chappell, Jim Shaddix, Tony Merida, Ed Stetzer, and many others. This handbook covers every aspect of contemporary preaching: The roots of contemporary preaching ​Contemporary preaching methods, including expository, topical, doctrinal, narrative, and alternative preaching models Sermon preparation and presentation Preaching and the biblical text Preaching as a part of ministry Preaching to the needs of people in contemporary contexts With its expansive bibliography and topical format, Handbook of Contemporary Preaching, 2nd Edition is designed to be a timeless resource in every pastor’s library. In this book, pastors, teachers, and seminarians will find invaluable insight and comprehensive guidance for the art of preaching. Contributors: R. Albert Mohler, Nathan Finn, Chuck Fuller, Tyshawn Gardner, Scott Gibson, Chris Rappazini, Robert Smith, Jr., Calvin Miller, Bryan Chapell, Frank Pollard, David S. Dockery, Scott Pace, Hershael York, Lloyd John Ogilvie, Stuart Briscoe, Jeffery Campbell, Ralph Douglas West, Eric Johnson, David Allen, Simon Vibert, Stephen Rummage, Daniel Block, Ken Mathews, Paul House, C. Hassell Bullock, Heath Thomas, Robert Sloan, Sidney Greidanus, Channing Crisler, Scott Hafemann, Richaed Melick, Al Fasol, Jim Shaddix, Don Sunukijian, Michael Quicke, Tony Merida, Jesse Nelson, Clayborn Lea, Mike Glenn, Micah Fries, Ed Stetzer, Kris Barnett, Bryan Carter, James Emery White, Tim McKnight, Charlie Dates, Mike Milton, Rick Blackwood, James Noble, Maurice Watson, Vic Anderson, Timothy Mann, Ben Brammer, Clayton King, and Dennis Phelps

This book provides a theology for social crisis preaching by arguing that Christian proclamation is the best prescription for the social crises in our world. Social Crisis Preaching positions the pastor as a sacred anthropologist, one who is aware of both the crises in one’s community, but also as one who has a firm understanding of the people in the pews. It also equips the preacher with both the hermeneutical and homiletical tools to confront social crisis with biblical integrity. Lastly, this book argues that social crisis preaching develops Christians disciples and congregations, as those who care about and confront the social crisis in their neighbor’s community, following the biblical mandate to “love your neighbor as yourself.”