Episode 185: Exodus Preaching, with Kenyatta Gilbert

Give and Take

My guest is Kenyatta Gilbert. His newest book is Exodus Preaching: Crafting Sermons about Justice and Hope. Exodus Preaching is the first of its kind. It is an exploration of the African American prophetic rhetorical traditions in a manner that makes features of these traditions relevant to a broad audience beyond the African American traditions. It provides readers a composite picture of the nature, meaning, and relevance of prophetic preaching as spoken Word of justice and hope in a society of growing pluralism and the world-shaping phenomenon of racial, economic and cultural diversity.

African American preachers have distinctively invested great symbolic significance in the Exodus story, the messianic witness of Jesus, and the prophetic literature for developing and shaping prophetic sermons. Kenyatta Gilbert demonstrates how four distinctive features of discourse can shape sermon preparation, for effective preaching in a period of intense social change, racial unrest, and violence.

Gilbert includes dozens of practical suggestions and five practical exercises to equip the reader for preaching in new ways and in new environments. He offers an holistic approach, fully equipping the reader with the theological and practical resources needed to preach prophetically.

Dr. Kenyatta R. Gilbert is Associate Professor of Homiletics at the Howard University School of Divinity in Washington, DC. He is author of The Journey and Promise of African American Preaching _and _A Pursued Justice: Black Preaching from the Great Migration to Civil Rights. Dr. Gilbert is an ordained Baptist minister and founder of The Preaching Project: Restoring Communities through Spoken Word. See more at www.thepreachingproject.org.

Special Guest: Kenyatta Gilbert.