The Golden Age Of Preaching

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.

When one compares the sermons delivered by Jesus and His apostles to what he hears today on radio and TV, he sees little similarity between the two. Unfortunately, what is preached at his own local church may not be much different. Instead of hearing a proclamation of what God has done for us through His Son, one frequently is given a ''be good, do good'' homily with nothing particularly distinctive in the message. Sermons that oppose contemporary religious departures from the gospel and address popular immoralities are avoided, less they offend a visitor to the public services. Instead of a deep exposition of a pertinent passage of Scripture, one hears a superficial three-point outline. The content of the sermon is a heart warming anecdote with a verse of Scripture attached at the end. Sometimes the lesson is so short that little substantial content can be included.This book is entitled Recapturing the Spirit and Power of The Golden Age of Preaching. The ''golden age'' is not the United States Restoration Movement, but the preaching of Jesus and His apostles. The book's message is a call for renewal- an appeal to go back to the Bible to learn how and what to preach.

Sermons are a useful barometer of a society and can tell us about many more aspects than the strictly spiritual. In this survey of preaching during the reign of Philip III (1598-1621) the subject has been approached from several different but complementary directions - historical, sociological, bibliographical, literary, and theological - in an attempt to assess the importance of sermons as the crystallization of preoccupations current in a period as complex as the Spanish Golden Age.

Covering the story of preaching from the Protestant Reformation to the end of the 17th century, the latest volume in this series covers not only what the Reformers preached but also the reform of preaching itself.

"Providing a comprehensive view of Golden Age piracy, this edition includes descriptions of the actions of individuals alongside contemporary discussions of the piracy problem through books, journals, newspaper articles, essays, reviews, proposals, pamphlets and sermons from Britain and its colonies."--Publisher's website.

Preaching is a demand of the Bible that is fitted with a specific purpose and a strong theological base. It is the proclamation of the word of God and is done in churches throughout the world. Preaching plays a role in the spiritual formation of its hearers, helping to form a community of faith whose members are sharing in and supporting one another in a spiritual journey. The topics of preaching can be found in both the Old and New Testaments, within several different genres, but closer attention might be given to the genres of the parables of Jesus and the speeches in the book of Acts. As a topic of preaching, the parables can be understood as examples of allegory, simile, and/or metaphor. The speeches in Acts offer a picture window of a sort into the homiletical mindset of the apostles and other disciples as they proclaimed the gospel to the world as they knew it. Preaching is a demand of the Bible and a specific task of those who are privileged to do it.

The first edition of this work was translated into several languages, including Spanish, Italian, Russian, Japanese and others. When Sathya Sai Baba left His body in 2010, devotees know that he will take birth in the future to deal with a world in crisis and bring about the Golden Age of a transformed human race. The book summarises the main teachings of Sai Baba in terms familiar to Christians and shows how He meets the prophesied comings of many faiths.