How to Preach a Dangerous Sermon

Learn to use four characteristics of 'preaching with moral imagination' to proclaim freedom for all. The author describes the four characteristics using examples like Robert F. Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,Prathia Hall, and the Moral Monday Movement, along with musicians and other artists of today. Moral imagination helps the hearer to see what they cannot see, to hear what they cannot hear--to inhabit the lives of others, so that they can embody Christ and true freedom for those others. This book equips and empowers preachers to transcend their basic skills and techniques, so that their proclamation of the Word causes actual turnaround in the hearts and lives of their hearers, and in their communities.'Frank Thomas has written apassionate summons: amid the current destructive chaos of our societythere is an urgent need for moral imagination. Such imagination is theantithesis of ';diabolic' and ';idolatrous' imagination that is all to thefore in our public discourse and practice. Thomas fleshes out ';moralimagination' with close reflection on the practice of Robert F. Kennedyand Martin Luther King. Before he finishes Thomas shows how the urgencyof ';moral imagination' belongs peculiarly to the work of the preacher.This book is a welcome call for gospel-grounded courage and truth aboutthe neighbor issued in a way that refuses the self-serving fakery thatdominates our public life.' --Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary'Timely and prophetic, How to Preach a Dangerous Sermonpresents a homiletic essential for our churches today. Thomas insiststhat it is up to the preacher to recapture and reclaim the moralimagination of our nation so that the Gospel's message of freedom istrue for all people. With attention to specific figures whose witnessmodels the qualities and characteristics of moral imagination, Thomasinspires the preacher toward powerful proclamation that both challengesand critiques any speech that subjugates or subordinates. How to Preach a Dangerous Sermonis must read for preachers to recover and reimagine the leadership roleof the church for the sake of justice for all.' --Karoline M. Lewis,Associate Professor of Biblical Preaching and the Marbury E. AndersonChair of Biblical Preaching, Luther Seminary; author of She: Five Keys to Unlock the Power of Women in Ministry.'In this lucid and compelling book, Frank Thomas plumbs the depths ofAmerican moral rhetoric for insights that will help preachers. How to Preach a Dangerous Sermonprovides new and dramatic ways in which the moral imagination in ademocratic society can be nurtured by visionary, empathic, wise, andartistic preachers.'--John S. McClure, Charles G. Finney Professor of Preaching and Worship, Vanderbilt Divinity School'Warning: Preachers, if you are comfortable with the status quo ofwhite privilege, patriarchy, hetero-normativity, and classism, do notread this book. If you are comfortable with sermon series that reducethe gospel to self-help acronyms, don't read this book. But if you havethe courage to look honestly at our landscape and bring the moralimagination of the Christian tradition to bear on it, open these pagesand your sermons may never be the same again. But then again neitherwill the church--or the world--be the same anymore, if enough of usfollow Thomas's advice.' --O. Wesley Allen, Jr., Lois Craddock PerkinsProfessor of Homiletics, Perkins School of Theology, Southern MethodistUniversity