I do not look for any other means of converting men beyond the simple preaching of the gospel and the opening of men’s ears to hear it. The moment the Church of God shall despise the pulpit, God will despise her. It has been through the ministry that the Lord has always been pleased to revive and bless His Churches.

—C. H. Spurgeon[2]

Anybody who keeps in mind the goals which the Reformation once set for itself can only be appalled at what has happened in the church of Luther and Calvin to the very thing which its fathers regarded as the source and spring of Christian faith and life, namely, preaching.

—Helmut Thielicke[3]

Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.

—2 Timothy 4:2

A brief survey of the church’s history, subsequent to the apostolic era, demonstrates the centrality of preaching, even by the negative example of periods when preaching reached a low ebb. Much like observing a sick person nurtured back to health by returning to a good diet, so the church, whenever it experienced reformation and revival, can be seen to have returned to the preaching of the message of the Bible.[4]

The Ancient Church

The Ancient Church, despite all its weaknesses, was a preaching church. It was the great classically trained orators like Ambrose and Augustine who usually made the best preachers. They understood the power of public speech and consecrated their training and gifts to the service of the Lord. Ambrose asserted: “Everything we believe, we believe either through sight or through hearing. . . . Sight is often deceived, hearing serves as guarantee.”[5] During the first three centuries after the apostles, the sermon developed from an informal homily into a structured discourse.[6]

The earliest extant example of what preaching was like in the late first or early second century is actually a sermon, The Second Epistle of Clement, written to the Corinthians.[7] It is ethical, rather than doctrinal.[8] The Didache, a church order, probably from the same period, provides much indirect information about early post-apostolic preaching. “The second-oldest Christian sermon which has come down to us is an Easter sermon preached by Melito of Sardis” (ca. 130–ca. 190).[9] His gospel message in the context of the history of salvation is an example of an early attempt at explaining Old Testament typology.[10] Justin Martyr (ca. 100–ca. 165) provides a clearer example of preaching, as he left a description of worship. Notable is the dominance of orality. The Scriptures were read seriatim because the average person did not own a Bible. Prior to his conversion Martyr was a rhetorician, a philosopher, and a lecturer.[11] With Clement of Alexandria (ca. 150–215), we begin to see the unfortunate influence of the Alexandrian allegorical hermeneutic as well as the important apologetic emphasis on Christianity’s superiority to Pagan philosophy, which began with Justin Martyr.[12]

Bringing allegorical preaching to new heights, Origen (180–253) also brought an extensive biblical knowledge from his Christian upbringing into the pulpit.[13] “Origen’s preaching marks the change from the hortatory homily to the expository sermon, but his exposition was clouded by the allegorical method in interpreting Scripture.”[14] Tertullian (ca. 150–ca. 225) and Cyprian (200–258) exemplified the use of rhetorical training in expository preaching, the latter being known for his superb eloquence.[15] Athanasius (297–373) continued the emphasis on expository preaching, but with a strong doctrinal clarity honed in the noble battle with the Christological heresy of Arianism. Excelling him in stylistic brilliance were his fellow defenders of the faith and classically trained rhetoricians Basil (330–379) and Gregory Nazianzen (330–390).[16] Ambrose of Milan (340–397) brought his significant skills as politician and pleader to his preaching. The mantel of Ambrose was passed on to his justly more famous disciple Augustine of Hippo (354–430). An adult convert from Paganism and a widely acclaimed orator, he subordinated all his considerable natural gifts and worldly attainments to the service of his Savior. Noted as the greatest of ancient theologians, he was also the most popular and powerful preacher of his day.[17] His only equal in pulpit eloquence was Chrysostom (347–407). “John of the Golden Mouth” wrote the first extant treatise on homiletics. Notable is the directness of his application of Scripture to his congregation.[18] As we shall see, he was also more critical of ancient rhetoric than Augustine.

The ancient world’s love of rhetoric and the popular orator, led to excesses in the pulpit. It “often degenerated there into artificial rhetoric, declamatory bombast, and theatrical acting.” Many came to church, not to worship, but to hear the celebrated orator. The sermon was often punctuated by applause.[19] If we think the temptation to cast worship in the entertainment mode is unique to the modern world, we are mistaken. We simply have superior tools with which to cultivate this diabolical tendency.

Augustine and Chrysostom have left us with a large volume of sermons, which have been an inspiration to every generation of preachers. The modern preacher would do well to mine these treasures of pre-Gutenberg orality. What they lacked in theology, from a Reformation perspective, they amply made up for in pulpit power. They used the potency of the tongue, made effective by the Holy Spirit, to persuade thousands to bow before their heavenly Master’s throne. Of the primacy of preaching in the ancient church there can be no doubt. Preaching was the staple of the Christian life, and it was at the center of the public worship of the church, in an age where texts were rare and precious, and the Word was mainly received through ear gate.

The Medieval Church

With the passing of Augustine and Chrysostom, the sun seemed to set on faithful and effective preaching. While it is accurate to say that there was an eclipse of preaching in medieval times, we must never forget that our Lord’s promise that the church, built on the solid rock of apostolic confession, will not be prevailed against even by hell itself. Thus, although the light of the Word grew dim, it was never entirely extinguished.[20] The upheaval caused by the fall of Rome brought a darkness to the culture in which the church lived, which is almost inconceivable to the modern mind. What replaced Roman civilization had more to do with the enervation of the pulpit than the upheaval itself. The Constantinian compromise had imposed Christianity on the empire. The church was Western civilization, and priestcraft grew to have little sense of the urgency of preaching. Such is the legacy of confusing cultus and culture.

In the wake of clerical ignorance, King Charlemagne, with the help of Alcuin, commissioned the preparation of a book of vernacular homilies to be read in the churches.[21] This Homiliarium (ca. 780) was used widely in France. Augustine of Canterbury and Bede compiled similar books for the British church.[22] Ulfilas (311–381), Patrick (372–465), Columba (521–597), the Venerable Bede (673–735), and others like them brought the Good News with great effect to their own pagan European tribes.

There are not lacking incidental evidences that preaching never lost its hold on the people. The rules for the art, drawn up by Gregory the Great (pope from 590–604) were in use two hundred years after his time at the court of Charlemagne, and a century later yet, . . . they were translated for the benefit of clergy, by Alfred of England. In the estimation of Charlemagne, indeed, preaching seems to have been an essential part of the priest’s office.[23]

He promoted the study of Scripture. In 813 the Councils of Mayence and Arles insisted on the priestly duty of preaching in every parish.[24]

Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1151), of noble birth and noble piety, confessed: “this is constantly my highest philosophy, to know Jesus Christ and him crucified.” Luther called him “the golden preacher,” and Schaff pronounces him the “most brilliant luminary of the pulpit after the days of Gregory the Great.”[25] “The sermons were not written out, but delivered from notes or improvised after meditation in the convent garden.” The flavor of eternity, combined with “a vivid apprehension of the grace of God,” a love for his hearers, an intimate knowledge of Scripture, and “a faculty of magnetic description,” placed him in the first rank of preachers in all ages.[26] Among four surviving homiletical treatises of the period, Guibert of Nogent’s What Order a Sermon Should Follow gives familiar advice about the importance of study and prayer in sermon preparation. Alanus ab Insulis’s Art of Preaching counsels the need for humility and useful instruction to the end that attention will be drawn to the message and not the messenger.[27]

The mendicant orders provided some of the best preaching of the Medieval period. Interestingly, some of the greatest Scholastic minds of this era were known for their preaching, among whom are Albertus Magnus (ca. 1193–1280), Thomas Aquinas (ca. 1225–74), and Bonaventura (ca. 1217–74). Among the most acclaimed mendicants was Anthony of Padua (1195–1231). Preaching in the fields and public squares, he preached to thousands of ordinary people.[28] His first sermon was on Philippians 2:8, Christ “humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” He was noted for staying close to the text of Scripture and exposing and rebuking sin with great effect. He was a friend of the poor and a thunderer from on high.[29] Francis of Assisi (1181–1226) embodies the best of the mendicant friar tradition. His gentle, giving, and gracious ways gave wings to the words he preached. He founded a school of preachers and spent his life seeking to win the world to Christ.[30]

Then, near the end of a period of relative darkness, shone a morning star presaging the dawning of a new day, John Wycliffe (1324–1384). His passion was to preach the glorious gospel to everyman—and that he did with great effect. Along with translating the Bible into the vernacular, he schooled and sent an order of preachers throughout the land.[31] Following in his noble train were John Huss (1369–1415) and Jerome of Prague (1375–1415), who “loved not their lives unto death” for preaching the heavenly kingdom.[32]

Sadly, much homiletical energy was devoted to the Crusades of the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries. Schaff records that “probably one-half of the priests in Germany in the twelfth century did not preach.”[33] However, the preaching of the Word never ceased.

It is important to note that in the absence of widespread literacy, as learning retreated into the monastery, the tendency to use visual aids, in the place of preaching for communication in the church, led to prevalent idolatry. Preaching and the Book upon which it is founded go hand in hand. Whenever the knowledge of the Bible recedes, preaching will suffer, and vice versa. In the Providence of God, the advent of printing in the mid-fifteenth century laid the communications groundwork for the Reformation and set the stage for a renaissance of interest in both preaching and the Book, first to be printed by Gutenberg in the mid fifteenth century.

The Reformation Church

The Reformation restored preaching to its primacy in the life and worship of the church. This great movement of the Spirit of Christ was both caused by and characterized by a revival of preaching. “Both Luther and Calvin were convinced that, when the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ is being proclaimed, God himself is heard by the listeners.”[34] In his commentary on Galatians, Luther asserted the centrality of the Word in contrast to idolatry: “All the highest religions, the holiness and most fervent devotions of those which do reject Christ the Mediator, and worship God without his word and commandment, are nothing else but plain idolatry.”[35] In order to deal with the ignorance of the clergy in the early days of the Reformation in England, two Book of Homilies were prepared by King Edward VI and Queen Elizabeth, which reflected the doctrines of the Reformation.[36] The printing press proved a great blessing in providing good sermons to those who would otherwise have gone hungry. Significantly, these sermons were not printed for individual reading, but to be read aloud, in the oral tradition, in the churches.

From the fiery Florentine Savanarola (1452–1498) and one of his famous hearers John Colet (1466–1519), who “became the first and most eminent expounder of the Bible in the University of Oxford.”[37] He influenced the army of Puritan preachers in the first half of the seventeenth century, and exists as a mighty testimony to the centrality and power of the preached Word. Martin Luther (1483–1546) was, of course, one of the greatest Reformation preachers. Intense personal conviction combined with keenness of mind and a down-to-earth rhetorical instinct caused the common person to hear him gladly. “His choice of words was fresh and natural; he had at command fancy, imagination, irony, sarcasm. The anecdote was always ready, the allegory revealed its hidden meaning as he used it, and he was a master of the plain speech needed for popular exposition.”[38] His spiritual power came from an intense love of Scripture as the very Word of God.

Space does not afford more than a passing mention of the other master preachers of the Magisterial Reformation. Ulrich Zwingli (1484–1531) saw preaching as the central work of the pastor of souls in Zurich. John Calvin’s (1509–1554) own view of the centrality of preaching is reflected in the Ecclesiastical Ordinances, which were framed under his influence:

The first part of the office of the pastor, says the Ordinances, is “to proclaim the Word of God, to instruct, admonish, exhort and censure, both in public and in private.” . . . Calvin will very frequently use the most definite language to assert that the preaching of the gospel is the Word of God. It is as if the congregation “heard the very words pronounced by God himself.” A man “preaches so that God may speak to us by the mouth of a man.”[39]

All of this was, of course, bounded by Scripture and the calling of the minister as an ambassador of Christ. So seriously did Calvin take this task that he frequently preached every single day of the week. He preached without notes and probably directly from the Hebrew and Greek texts.[40] Despite having a naturally reserved personality, he exercised rare freedom in the pulpit. “His manner of delivery was lively, passionate, intimate, direct and clear.”[41] One could hardly ask for a better model of preaching. Like Luther, he spoke in the vivid vernacular of the Genevese.[42] For Calvin the sermon itself was an act of worship as it engaged the congregation in the reality of redemption.[43]

No preacher is better remembered for his power in the pulpit than John Knox (1505–1572). He was utterly fearless in proclaiming Christ and humbling the princes, and princesses, of the realm. He was a model for countless other Scottish preachers of his day. In the best of times he thanked God that “the gospel of Jesus Christ is simply and truly preached throughout Scotland.”[44] Near the end of his life, in a condition so weakened that he could barely climb into the pulpit of Saint Andrews, it is said by one observer that “before he was done with his sermon he was so active and vigorous that he was like to ding the pulpit in blads [pieces], and fly out of it.” When he made application of his text, “he made me so thrill and tremble that I could not hold a pen to write.”[45] Such was the primacy of preaching during the Reformation, that men like Knox saved their best, and often only energy, to preach. Hugh Latimer (1490–1555) was Knox’s fearless counterpart in England.

The Puritans brought the primacy of preaching to its apogee. Harwood Pattison calls the seventeenth century “The Golden Age of English Preaching.”[46] The ground for this noble generation was laid during the golden age of English literature under Queen Elizabeth. Among the illustrious names who adorned the church of Jesus Christ, among Puritans and Anglicans, were Thomas Hooker (1553–1600); the “silver tongued” Henry Smith (1550–1593); Lancelot Andrews (1555–1624); and the poet John Donne (1573–1631). Then there were Joseph Hall (1574–1656); Thomas Fuller (1608–1661); and the Puritan Thomas Adams (1585–1655), called the “Shakespeare of the Puritans.”[47]

Scotland produced some of the best preachers of this era. David Dickson (1583–1663) opened Scripture with great effect, as the comment of an English merchant shows: “That man showed me all my heart.”[48] Samuel Rutherford (1600–1661) was “at the same time a son of thunder and consolation.”[49]

Then there were John Livingstone (1603–1661), “the sweetest and saintliest of the Puritans;”[50] Robert Leighton (1611–1684), whose “very look . . . was expressive of holy ardor and of tender piety;”[51] Thomas Goodwin (1600–1679); theologian preacher John Owen (1616–1683); pastor par excellence, Richard Baxter (1615–1691); the pilgrim preacher John Bunyan (1628–1688); Anglican Jeremy Taylor (1613–1679); and Puritans John Howe (1630–1705) and Isaac Barrow (1630–1677). Surrounding these who are known to history is an almost countless number of faithful heralds.

Nowhere is the primacy of preaching more clearly expressed than in the great confessions which grew out of the Reformation. The earliest Reformation creed, articulating Luther’s theology in the craftsmanship of Melanchton, The Augsburg Confession (1530), in Article V “Of the Ministry of the Church,” after stating the primacy of “the ministry of teaching the Gospel” for the “obtaining of faith,” asserts: “For the Word and Sacraments, as by instruments, the Holy Spirit is given: who worketh faith, where and when it pleaseth God, in those that hear the Gospel.” The power of the keys according to Article VII “is put in execution only by teaching or preaching the Word and administering the Sacraments.” It is stated almost offhandedly that people are saved by hearing the gospel. Of course, in the first part of the sixteenth century literacy was still the exception, despite the revolution caused by Gutenberg’s revolutionary invention.

In chapter 1 of the Second Helvetic Confession (1566) Heinrich Bullinger, the successor of Zwingli, summarized the position of the Reformers in one terse, and rightly famous statement: Praedicatio verbi Dei est verbum Dei—“the preaching of the word of God is the word of God.” In the next sentence he interprets this statement as follows: “Wherefore when the word of God [Scripture] is now preached in the church by preachers lawfully called, we believe that the very word of God is proclaimed, and received by the faithful.”[52]

The last of the great Reformation Protestant creeds, The Westminster Confession of Faith (1648, chapter I.10) declares:

The supreme Judge, by which all controversies of religion are to be determined, and all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient writers, doctrines of men, and private spirits, are to be examined, and in whose sentence we are to rest, can be no other but the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scripture (Matt. 22:29, 31; Eph. 2:20; Acts 28:25).

The Scriptures are the inviolable foundation for what the church believes. But how is that Word communicated effectively to sinners? The Westminster Shorter Catechism, question #89 (cf. The Westminster Larger Catechism #155), similarly asserts:

How is the word made effectual to salvation? A. The Spirit of God maketh the reading, but especially the preaching of the word, an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners, and of building them up in holiness and comfort, through faith, unto salvation (Neh. 8:8; 1 Cor. 14:24–25; Acts 26:18; Ps. 19:8; Acts 20:32; Rom. 15:4; 2 Tim. 3:15–17; Rom. 10:17; Rom. 1:16, emphasis added).

Despite certain liabilities of printing,[53] we must never forget that it helped to restore a balance in the church’s life between the written Word of Scripture and the visible Word of the sacraments. Printing also clearly helped foster the revival of preaching as it fostered the literacy of clergy and people alike. Certainly, diminishment of the sacraments in many Protestant communions as well as the individualizing tendency of the printed word, should alert us to the need for balance among the three primary or natural media. There should, however, be no doubt that printing has been an extraordinary blessing to the church.

The Modern Church

From the Peace of Westphalia (1648) to the present, preaching has continued to be a central concern of the church. We see this in the great revivals in England and New England during the Enlightenment. Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758), George Whitefield (1714–1770), and the Wesleys are a staple of the church’s recollection of its homiletical past. They were each, above all, preachers. In the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the great missionary effort of the English speaking church was characterized by sending preachers, like William Carey (1761–1834), to the most distant unreached people groups of every continent.

Perhaps the most influential and widely known pastor of that century, Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834–1892), was known primarily for his preaching. The fact that he wrote his sermons for publication on the Monday after he preached them is a testimony to the endurance of orality in the life of the church. While we must never over-estimate “famous” preachers, their presence in the historical memory is an indication of the importance of preaching in the popular mind. As we have noted in our survey, behind every notable preacher was usually a host of faithful men adorning the pulpits of the land in regular pastoral ministry. Thus, the paucity of notable preachers since Spurgeon should alert us to the fact there has been a decline in preaching since the advent of electronic communication.

The most well-known preachers of the twentieth century are connected with television, so I have chosen not to list them as notable, since their ministries have not been in the church or directly connected with it. This is not to say that we could not learn much about preaching from the best of them, like Billy Graham (1918–2018). My intention, however, is to encourage pastoral and evangelistic preaching in the local church. I have already mentioned the notable radio ministry of Joel Nederhood (1930–). His preaching is also among the best examples in our time. A long list of excellent preachers, well known more within narrower denominational contexts could be named. J. Gresham Machen (1881–1937), Donald Gray Barnhouse (1895–1960), D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899–1981), Francis Schaeffer (1912–1984), John Stott (1921–2011), Jay Adams (1929–2020), and Timothy Keller (1950–) might be exceptions to this rule. The fact that many of these and a host of others may be listened to electronically will be of help to the preacher in search of models.

*     *     *

As we move now from the Gutenberg Galaxy to the Electronic Age, the preacher faces a new challenge. The reorganization of the human sensorium (all of our powers of perception), along with the reshaping of every institution in our culture through the influence of the new electronic environment created by the electronic media, demands awareness of the nature and place of the electronic media in culture and its effect on the church and the task of the preacher. No one “could be more effected than the preacher by the changes in the structure of the human psyche and the shift in the areas of sensitivity within modern man’s sensorium.”[54]

The new media do not tend to replace, but rather to envelop, the old media, so that we have secondary orality and secondary literacy. Most important to the preacher are his own, as well as the church’s and the culture’s, assessment of the value of his preaching task. At the close of the century of the electronic revolution and the beginning of another, there is no want of testimony to the depressed state of preaching, and the failure of nerve among preachers, in the churches. Witness a small sample of homiletical titles: As One Without Authority; Crisis in the Pulpit: The Pulpit Faces Future Shock; The Empty Pulpit; The Gagging of God: The Failure of the Church to Communicate in the Television Age; The Sermon Under Attack. Because man is a sinner, the reality of the crucified and risen Christ and the truth of his infallible Word have not changed, we must with renewed understanding and vigor preach the Christ of Scripture, and that unmediated by electronic media, face-to-face as pastors caring for the Lord’s flock.

Endnotes

[1] This chapter is based on Gregory E. Reynolds, The Word Is Worth a Thousand Pictures: Preaching in the Electronic Age (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2001), 323–33.

[2] C. H. Spurgeon, C. H. Spurgeon: The Early Years, 1834–1859, A revised edition of his autobiography, originally compiled by his wife and private secretary (London: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1962), v.

[3] Helmut Thielicke, The Trouble with the Church (New York: Harper and Row, 1965), 1.

[4] The preacher should avail himself of the seven volumes of Hughes Oliphant Old’s definitive history of preaching noted in chapter 1. Volumes 2–7 cover post-biblical history. Volume 2: The Patristic Age; Volume 3: The Medieval Church; Volume 4: The Age of the Reformation; Volume 5: Moderatism, Pietism, and Awakening; Volume 6: The Modern Age; Volume 7: Our Own Time (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998, 1998, 1999, 2002, 2004, 2007, 2010).

[5] Walter Ong, The Presence of the Word (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1967. Reprint, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1981), 52.

[6] Harwood T. Pattison, The History of Christian Preaching (Philadelphia: The American Baptist Publication Society, 1903), 48.

[7] Old, The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures, vol. 1, 278.

[8] Pattison, The History of Christian Preaching, 49.

[9] Old, The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures, vol. 1, 251–352. Old gives a full account of this period.

[10] Old, The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures, 285ff.

[11] Pattison, The History of Christian Preaching, 50.

[12] Pattison, The History of Christian Preaching, 51–52.

[13] Pattison, The History of Christian Preaching, 52f.

[14] Everett F. Harrison, ed., Baker’s Dictionary of Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1960), s.v. “Preach, Preaching,” by Carl G. Kromminga.

[15] Pattison, The History of Christian Preaching, 54ff.

[16] Pattison, The History of Christian Preaching, 57ff.

[17] Pattison, The History of Christian Preaching, 62f.

[18] Pattison, The History of Christian Preaching, 63ff.

[19] Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. 3, (1910, Reprint Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1981), 473.

[20] Old, The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures, vol. 3. Here is a rich harvest covering the Medieval period, usually dismissed by Reformed students of preaching, by a Reformed scholar, who is appreciative without being uncritical.

[21] Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. 3, 77.

[22] Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. 4, 401.

[23] Pattison, The History of Christian Preaching, 89. Gregory the Great had said that teaching was “the art of all arts,” 78.

[24] Pattison, The History of Christian Preaching, 78.

[25] Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. 5, 855.

[26] Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. 5, 855.

[27] Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. 5, 853.

[28] Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. 5, 856f. Dominic founded the Order of Preachers in the late twelfth century.

[29] Pattison, The History of Christian Preaching, 107ff.

[30] Pattison, The History of Christian Preaching, 102ff.

[31] Pattison, The History of Christian Preaching, 114ff.

[32] Pattison, The History of Christian Preaching, 118f.

[33] Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. 5, 852.

[34] Sinclair B. Ferguson and David F. Wright, eds., New Dictionary of Theology (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1988), s.v. “Preaching, Theology of.”

[35] Martin Luther, A Commentary on Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians (Reprint. 1891. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1979), 526.

[36] Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. 4, 401.

[37] Pattison, The History of Christian Preaching, 129.

[38] Pattison, The History of Christian Preaching, 134.

[39] T. H. L. Parker, John Calvin (Tring/Batavia, IL/Sydney: Lion Publishing, 1987), 106.

[40] Parker, John Calvin, 108ff.

[41] Parker, John Calvin, 110.

[42] Parker, John Calvin, 111.

[43] Parker, John Calvin, 114.

[44] Pattison, The History of Christian Preaching, 147.

[45] Pattison, The History of Christian Preaching, 147.

[46] Pattison, The History of Christian Preaching, 163.

[47] Pattison, The History of Christian Preaching, 184.

[48] Pattison, The History of Christian Preaching, 184.

[49] Pattison, The History of Christian Preaching, 185.

[50] Pattison, The History of Christian Preaching, 186.

[51] Pattison, The History of Christian Preaching, 187.

[52] New Dictionary of Theology, s.v. “Preaching, Theology of.”

[53] Cf. chapters 5 and 7 in Gregory E. Reynolds, The Word Is Worth a Thousand Pictures: Preaching in the Electronic Age (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2001).

[54] Fred B. Craddock, As One Without Authority (Nashville: Abingdon, 1971), 9.

Gregory E. Reynolds is pastor emeritus of Amoskeag Presbyterian Church (OPC) in Manchester, New Hampshire, and is the editor of Ordained Servant. Ordained Servant Online, May, 2023.