Preaching During a Pandemic
The Rhetoric of the Black Preaching Tradition, Volume I
Summary
By publishing these sermons, the editors address questions such as what were those who preached in the Black preaching tradition sharing with their congregants? How were they incorporating and infusing COVID-19 in their sermons? What shape did the prophetic and priestly sermon take when preaching during a pandemic? Were specific models or types of sermons—womanist, prophetic/liberation, narrative, contemplative, celebrative, expository, thematic, induction, deductive—more frequently employed during a crisis?
Across the two volumes, the editors collate 29 sermons and provide detailed introductions to each book examining the context and themes of the texts in an illuminating and accessible manner. It will make fascinating reading for students and scholars of Communication and Religious Studies.
Excerpt
Table Of Contents
- Cover
- Advance Praise
- Title
- Copyright
- About the editors
- About the book
- This eBook can be cited
- Table of Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: The Rhetoric of the Black Pulpit: The Collection of Black Sermons
- What Happens in the Wilderness?: Genesis 16:7–13 (NRSV) (Ristina Gooden)
- Do Not Pass Me By: Exodus 11: 4–8 (NRSV) (Heather S. Wills)
- Surviving Quarantine: Exodus 12:13, 22–23; Ephesians 3:16–19 (NIV) (Jamar Boyd II)
- Hope in the Holla: Numbers 27:1–5 (NRSV) (Donna Vanhook)
- The Ministry of Manna: Deuteronomy 8:1–5 (NRSV) (Howard-John Wesley)
- What Does All this Mean?: Joshua 4:5–7 (NIV) (Wallis C. Baxter III)
- Remembering God in Troubled Times: Psalm 20:6–8 (NKJV) (Tamara Kersey)
- Singing Without a Sanctuary: Psalm 27:4–6 (NASB) (Aaron Marble)
- Pandemic Loneliness: Psalms 66:8–20, John 14:15–21 (NRSV) (Andre E. Johnson)
- What’s Going On?: Psalm 82:1–6 (NIV) (Glencie Rhedrick)
- I Can’t Breathe: Isaiah 40:27–29 (NASB) (R. Janae Pitts-Murdock)
- Building Houses in Babylon: Jeremiah 29: 4–11 (NKJV) (C. Dexter Wise III)
- How Long? We Can’t Breathe: Habakkuk 1:2 (NIV) (Cory Jones)
- Lines Written Upon Reflection on Contemporary Moral Decay (Patricia Robinson Williams)
- Contributors
- Series Index
Acknowledgments
In addition to thanking our families, friends, colleagues, and supporters, we would like to thank Niall Kennedy, Joshua Charles, and the good people at Peter Lang Publishing for their work in bringing this project to fruition. We would also like to thank Michael Gipson, who started this project with us, and for the Studies in Communication, Culture, Race, and Religion book series. We also would like to thank the contributors for their submissions and patience as we put this book together during a pandemic. We also thank the Black Church for still finding ways out of no way to serve and minister to the people of God.
Andre
Kimberly
Wallis
Introduction: The Rhetoric of the Black Pulpit: The Collection of Black Sermons
With this project, our aims are simple. While like others before us, we understand and appreciate the Black preacher’s role in the history of the United States. From enslavement workcamps to time spent in hush harbors, the Black preacher managed somehow to inspire, encourage, and equip those shacked within the American slavocracy. This oratorical tradition carried African Americans through Reconstruction, the Harlem Renaissance, Jim and Jane Crow, the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Power Movement, the Black Arts Movement, and the #BlackLivesMatter Movement.
Though the Black preacher was called upon to speak truth and triumph amid varied seasons of the human plight in America, COVID-19 and the politics of a pandemic made this a different moment in American history. We suggest that this moment was different and significant because many churches did not meet physically. More specifically, the comfort of companionship and collective comradery that the Black Church provided for its members was gone in an instant. Even during slavery, even in secret, the church met physically, so for many worshippers, this was new terrain. How does one preach while navigating a pandemic? How does one worship? How does one minister with music? What about the outreach ministries and other ministries that churches do—how do we do them in the middle of a pandemic became questions all church leaders and congregants ask of themselves.
←1 | 2→Therefore, in that tension, we called for sermons for a two-volume set titled Preaching During a Pandemic: The Rhetoric of the Black Preaching Tradition. We envisioned this book to be a collection of sermons from those who preach within the Black preaching tradition. By publishing these sermons, we hope to address questions: what were those who preached in the Black preaching tradition sharing with their congregants? How were they incorporating and infusing COVID-19 in their sermons? What shape did the prophetic and priestly sermon take when preaching during a pandemic? Were specific models or types of sermons—womanist, prophetic/liberation, narrative, contemplative, celebrative, expository, thematic, induction, deductive—more frequently employed during a crisis? We aimed to collect some of the best sermons of the Black Preaching Tradition during this COVID-19 pandemic.
The collection and publication of African American sermons have been the foundation of the understanding and the appreciation of the African American rhetoric and public address tradition. One of the first collections of sermons from a Black preacher was Episcopalian Alexander Crummell in 1862. Titled The Future of Africa: Addresses and Sermons Delivered in the Republic of Liberia, the volume consisted of speeches and sermons delivered while he served as Minister to Liberia for the United States government. Texts in this collection centered on the “interests of Africa and the Negro race” and performed two important ends. First, Crummell, through his oratory and preaching, wanted to show that the “children of Africa” had been “called in Divine Providence to meet the demand of civilization” and second, to demonstrate that they have already started to “grapple with the problems which pertain to the responsible manhood.”1
Details
- Pages
- X, 96
- Year
- 2023
- ISBN (PDF)
- 9781433186189
- ISBN (ePUB)
- 9781433186196
- ISBN (MOBI)
- 9781433186202
- ISBN (Hardcover)
- 9781433186172
- ISBN (Softcover)
- 9781433186356
- DOI
- 10.3726/b18146
- Language
- English
- Publication date
- 2023 (February)
- Keywords
- Preaching pandemic rhetoric Black preaching homiletics Black Church Religious rhetoric communication race religion Preaching During a Pandemic The Rhetoric of the Black Preaching Tradition Andre E. Johnson Kimberly P. Johnson Wallis C. Baxter III
- Published
- New York, Berlin, Bruxelles, Lausanne, Oxford, 2023. X, 96 pp.
