African American Preaching

The Author: Gerald Lamont Thomas is Senior Pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church in Plainfield, New Jersey, and former Professor of Preaching at the Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A native of Youngstown, Ohio, Thomas earned his Ph.D. in Preaching and M.Div. from Southern Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. He received his B.A. in economics from Howard University in Washington, D.C., and worked in corporate business for over twelve years. Pastor Thomas has served the Pilgrim Baptist Church and Burnett Avenue Baptist Church, both in Kentucky, and the Metropolitan Baptist Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has preached and lectured across the United States, Africa, and the Caribbean.

«This book serves as a valuable historical resource in the library of all preachers, especially African Americans. The art, style, and form of our preaching, even today, is a derivative from men like King, Thurman, and, of course, Dr. Gardner C. Taylor. His powerful, poetic, cultural transcending preaching has and will bless preachers and parishioners for years to come. Thanks to Gerald Lamont Thomas for his research and resilience in compiling this work on the legacy of African American preaching.» (Louis B. Jones, II, Pastor, Pilgrim Baptist Church, Washington, D.C.)«Gerald Lamont Thomas has opened for us a window that we might see more clearly the life and ministry of one of the greatest preaching giants of our age, Dr. Gardner C. Taylor, whose star yet shines bright even into the morning rays of the twenty-first century. Thomas, a preacher, pastor, and scholar, whose own star continues to rise, has given us valuable insight into the heart, soul, mind, and even the personal history of this legendary larger-than-life servant of God whose passion for preaching was stirred and whose preaching skills honed and shaped in the African American church of the rural south, and went on to occupy a world pulpit. A work sorely needed and a lofty tribute to a prince of preachers.» (J. Wendell Mapson, II, Pastor, Monumental Baptist Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)«Preaching is both an art and a science. As art it has its canons bounded by imagination and as science it has its rules. Gerald Lamont Thomas has captured in this book both the art and the science of preaching. As Professor of Preaching, he teaches the science and students become practitioners of the art. Using Dr. Gardner C. Taylor of Brooklyn as his paradigm, and through a sensitive handling of biography, he has demonstrated how logic, narrative, and rhetoric may be blended together allowing that which is an ancient art and science to have modern application. This is a useful book for anyone interested in preaching as a whole or in the specific area of black preaching.» (Horace O. Russell, Dean of Chapel and Professor of Historical Theology, Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)