Homiletic Moves and Structures

This is hands down the best preaching book I've ever read. I was so moved by the book that I considered getting a masters in theology at Vanderbuilt. This is coming from someone whose read over 100 plus books on preaching and oral communication. I consider it the preaching bible. My copy is marked up, highlighted and the pages are being held together with tape due to the many rereads and repeated references to various sections of the text. The book is long, detailed and encyclopedic. However,the pain you endure while reading and attempting to incorporate the concepts into your sermons will result in pleasure for all those who hear your much improved sermons. I noticed an immediate improvement in my sermons after incorporating the concepts. My only warning, this book is probably not for the first time preacher. If you have to give a talk for the first time and you need some advice, this is not the book for you. If however, you are someone with a basic understanding of how to put a sermon together, and have traveled the journey from sermon idea to delivery a few times, and want to take your preaching to next level, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK. Enjoy....

Wow, what a book about preaching. The book is long, detailed, and yes tedious. I was warned before hand concerning the book, thanks Matt, of the nature of the discussion. Buttrick is a master, there is no doubt. He knows every thing and every one concerning preaching. This book is not for the average preacher, most would have no clue what he is talking about, it is mostly theory. This book is beyond me, I am not that good yet to practice this methodology. But the book was helpful in polishing the pulpit. The book is like fine sandpaper, it puts on a beautiful finish on a preacher, but you have to be polished before the paper would do the job. If you are a top notch preacher that needs the most challenging material and style, this book is for you. If not, read "Preaching" by Calvin Miller this year.

Buttrick's book was and is a milestone in homiletics. I suspect that for those who read the book carefully, and I did and have reread sections several times since, we were never the same. This is a marvelous, breathtaking book by a master theoretician. My confession, however, is that I was never quite able to satisfactorily pull off what Buttrick recommends regarding sermonic "moves." Nonetheless this is as important a book for the preacher/ pastor as Karl Barth's "Romerbrief" was to the theologian's playground in the early twentieth century.

Anyone with an interest in preaching would include this book in their list of 10 books to take to a desert island. Buttrick helps us to understand how the literary and critical task not only informs but at times defines the preaching task. He places strong emphasis on preaching in a way that is consistent with the way people process information. Iconoclastic at times to a fault (Buttrick began lectures in one class "The last 400 years of Christian preaching has all been done wrong-I'll show you why) his patchwork phenomenological method helps the preacher break out of tired formats to become an effective communicator.

This book is divided into two parts: One devoted to the construction of sermons, the other to the interpretation of biblical texts.Buttrick's approach to preaching is different than most because he actually took the time to learn how the listener hears and remembers sermons. Thus, his homilitec is geared toward constructing sermons that people will actually remember after they leave worship. He also spends half of the book on the art of interpreting the biblical text with regards to preaching, arguing that different literary forms demand different types of sermons. Thus, narratives should begat narrative sermons, pedagogic passages should begat pedagogic sermons, and parables should begat parabolic sermons.Only one caveat. Since his approach is based on how people hear, it implies that the art of preaching needs to be continually reformed because how people hear and remember tomorrow will be different than they do today. Put differently, thirty years from now, "Homiletic" will be obsolete. My guess, however, is that if Buttrick is still teaching, he will be teaching an entirely new approach to art of preaching.