Rhetoric of the Protestant Sermon in America

Eric C. Miller is associate professor of communication studies at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania.Jonathan J. Edwards is senior instructor of speech communication and rhetoric at the University of South Carolina.

• Introduction – The Protestant Sermon in AmericaEric C. Miller, Bloomsburg University of PennsylvaniaChapter 1 – The Constitutive Sermon: Cotton, Winthrop, and the Long Puritan LegacyLauren Lemley, Abilene Christian UniversityChapter 2 – The Opportunistic Sermon: Theology, Praxis, and Jerry FalwellMeridith I. Styer, University of MarylandChapter 3 – The Apology Sermon: Jimmy Swaggart’s Mea Culpa Mark Ward Sr., University of Houston-VictoriaChapter 4 – The Self-Help Sermon: Prosperity Preaching in Pulpit and PrintLuke Winslow and Daniel Young, San Diego State UniversityChapter 5 – The Political Sermon: Jeremiah Wright’s Partisan ParadoxJonathan J. Edwards, University of South CarolinaChapter 6 – The Leave Taking Sermon: Mark Driscoll and the Challenge of AuthenticityRobert Stephen Reid, University of DubuqueChapter 7 – The Confessional Sermon: Nadia Bolz-Weber’s Full DisclosureKelsey W. Minnick, University of DenverChapter 8 – The Coming Out Sermon

The contributors to this volume are all reputable scholars in the field of rhetoric and communication theory. They uncover underlying rhetorical strategies in sermons preached by well-known pulpiteers in the United States toward the end of the twentieth and first part of the twenty-first centuries. They are to be applauded for their efforts not to discard the sermon as a critical rhetorical form that has profound influence in the public square. . . . Overall, this book should generate more interest in investigating the powerful influence the Protestant sermon has had on religion and politics in both the public and private sphere. As Miller says in the introduction, we want to “revitalize pulpit rhetoric as an object of critical inquiry”; “Perhaps more than any other rhetorical genre, it shapes worldviews, reinforces values, and informs the civic practice of millions of citizens” (xvii–xviii).