Ruth Conrad is Professor of Practical Theology at Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany.Roland Hardenberg is Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany. Hanna Miethner is a research assistant for the Faculty of Practical Theology at Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany.Max Stille is Executive Director of NETZ Partnership for Development and Justice, Germany.

• List of ContributorsAcknowledgementsIntroduction, Ruth Conrad (Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany), Roland Hardenberg (Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany), Hanna Miethner (Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany), Max Stille (NETZ Partnership for Development and Justice, Wetzlar, Germany)Part I: Preaching and Social Dynamics1. Are 1000 Sermons Representative Enough? Political and Social Dimensions of Sermons and Religious Speeches 1800–1950 in Germany and Some Methodological Problems, Olaf Blaschke (University of Münster, Germany)2. The Struggle for Hope Continues: The Christmas Sermons of Archbishop Thabo Makgoba, 2009–2019, Cas Wepener and Marileen Steyn (Stellenbosch University, South Africa)3. Moral Exhortation in Islamic Discourse: Performance and Ethics in Islamic Sermons, Abdulkader Tayob (University of Cape Town, South Africa)Part II: Popularity and Normativity in Sermons 4. Unity, Justice and Freedom: Preached Religious Staging of Political Values in the Public Sermons on the Day of Germany Unity (‘Tag Der Deutschen Einheit’), Jan Hermelink (University of Göttingen, Germany)5. Joel Osteen's Prosperity Gospel and the Enduring Popularity of America's ‘Smiling Preacher’, Maren Freudenberg (University of Bochum, Germany) 6. A Case on Behalf of the ‘Routine Listener’, Julian Millie (Monash University Melbourne, Australia)Part III: Ritual and Religious Speech 7. ‘Words Against Death’ Religious Speech: Perspectives From Ritual Ambivalences and Trends, Paul Post (University of Tilburg, the Netherlands)8. Arabic Oration in Early Islam: Religion, Ritual, and Rhetoric, Tahera Quitbuddin (University of Chicago, USA)9. The Rain Rogation khutba: A Case Study of the Reciprocal Relationship Between Islamic Ritual and Religious Speech, Linda Gale Jones (Universitat Pompeu Fabra Barcelona, Spain)AppendicesIndex

This is a splendid book that gathers essays on the meaning of preaching with regard to its ritual and social dynamics. It is one of the first volumes to bring Islamic and Christian preaching into conversation. With case studies from different time periods and continents, as well as more theoretical reflections, we are offered a very rich collection.