From The Pit To The Throne Or Scenes From The Life Of Joseph

To measure the impact of a minister's preaching, one must first examine the societal context in which the ministry took place. For example, what would lead a minister of the Gospel to roar from the pulpit, as did Joseph Parker of City Temple, London, "God damn the Sultan!" The first section of The Golden Age of Preaching is given to the study of the times in which nine prominent British preachers ministered. Understanding the times helps one to comprehend why crowds flocked to hear these men preach, and why their sermons were printed in newspapers on Monday. Furthermore, to assess the preaching of a man, one needs to take into account the life and manner of the man himself. The Men Who Moved the Masses includes biographical sketches of nine selected preachers: Alexander McLaren, Robert William Dale, Henry Parry Liddon at St. Paul's London, Joseph Parker, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Alexander Whyte, Frederick Brotherton Meyer, John Henry Jowett, and George Campbell Morgan. These were men, though hampered by various medical problems and personality shortcomings, who led thousands to faith in their day. The final section attempts to answer the question, "Why?" by identifying those homiletical characteristics of their preaching which they had in common, resulting in such uncommon impact upon the masses. Those qualities are not confined to their era alone. They are perpetual, applicable to any age, to any culture. Preachers and seminarians who dare to sit at the feet and learn from these preaching giants of the past will find their own preaching power lifted onto a new plain to the benefit of all who hear them.

Vicchio believes that by understanding how much Muslim tradition overlaps with the biblical traditions of Judaism and Christianity, we might begin to expose a wedge of common ground on which understanding and respect might begin to be built. Vicchio begins with a brief introduction sketching some fundamentals of Muslim history and culture, and clearing away some common misconceptions. His main goal, however, is to give us a detailed look at the treatment of biblical figures in the literature of Islam. The broad range of his research and presentation is startling. He begins with the Qur'an but continues on to the collected writing of the roughly two hundred years after Mohammed (Hadith, Sunnah, Akhbar) that came to be regarded as authoritative in the various traditions that developed in early Islam. He then traces the interest in these biblical figures on into modern treatments of the role of these figures in Muslim scholarship and how these figures are understood and used in the traditions of Islam yet today. The result of Vicchio's scholarship and presentation will be a revelation to most Christian and Jewish readers. It has become somewhat commonplace to refer to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as the three Abrahamic faiths. This shows a beginning awareness of the beginnings of each of these three great religions, birthed in the Middle East, in a common ancestor, Abraham (Ibrahim). Abraham's faithfulness and his closeness to God make his a revered figure in each of these three great faiths, and for each Abraham is a beginning of the story of the particular relationship between God and the people of each of these religions. --from the Foreword