God’s Glory in Christian Proclamation
Michael Pasquarello III
William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
4035 Park East Court SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546
© 2020 Michael Pasquarello III
All rights reserved
Published 2020
ISBN 978-0-8028-2474-5
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Pasquarello, Michael, author.
Title: The beauty of preaching : God’s glory in Christian proclamation / Michael Pasquarello III.
Description: Grand Rapids, Michigan : William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “A work of homiletical theology on the role of preaching in revealing God’s beauty”—Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020004854 | ISBN 9780802824745 (paperback)
Subjects: LCSH: Methodist preaching. | Doxology. | Aesthetics—Religious aspects—Christianity. | God (Christianity)—Beauty. | Bible—Homiletical use.
Classification: LCC BX8349.P74 P37 2020 | DDC 251—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020004854
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible.
This book is dedicated to my mother,
Angelina Pasquarello,
whose care has enabled me to see God’s humble love
revealed in Christ,
which constitutes the beauty of preaching.
Foreword by Will Willimon
Introduction: Reclaiming Beauty
Remembering the Beauty of the Unnamed Woman’s Act in Preaching
To Love the Beauty of the Word
Seeing the Beauty of the Creator in the Creation
Trinitarian Beauty and Preaching
Preaching as the Beauty of Wisdom
The End of Preaching: Holiness and Happiness in God
The Beauty of Preaching and the Poor
Preaching in the Beauty of Holiness
Magnificat: The Beauty of Mary’s Praise
Conclusion: Beauty, Now and Then
Preaching for the Praise of God’s Glory
The Blessed Uselessness of Preaching
A Homiletical Aesthetic for a Pilgrim People
In seminary I wrote a paper for Paul Holmer, “Kierkegaard on Preachers Who Try to Be Poets,” my riff on Kierkegaard’s aphorism that “truth is not nimble on its feet.” I took aim at preachers posing as poets and sermons that succumb to Kierkegaard’s dreaded lure of the aesthetic, that is, preachers and sermons that were too pretty ...
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About The Beauty of Preaching: God’s Glory in Christian ProclamationWhat does beauty have to do with healing the fragmentation within our churches? According to Michael Pasquarello, everything. Amid the cacophony of ugly political invective that dominates nearly every space today—including church—only God has the power to unify and heal through his truth and goodness, revealed in his beauty. And every Sunday, those in the pulpit have the opportunity and responsibility to share this beauty with their parishioners. The Beauty of Preaching is about nothing less than the essence of what preaching is. Pasquarello’s project is to turn the tide against the conventional wisdom that sermons are first and foremost meant to be pragmatic. Tapping into a long tradition that can be traced back to Augustine, Pasquarello explores a theological definition of beauty that has tremendous revelatory power in a post-Christendom world. A church manifesting this beauty is not merely a gathering of people, but a place where God’s new creation appears in the midst of the old creation, ushered in by a pastor willing to make God the primary actor within the doxological craft of preaching. |
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