Ten Theology Books to Watch For – July 2024

Black Contemplative Preaching: A Hidden History of Prayer, Proclamation, and Prophetic Witness

E. Trey Clark

(Baylor University Press)

Stereotypical images of African American Christian spirituality eclipse the profound diversity of Black preaching. As a result, contemplative preaching has become one of the most overlooked streams of gospel proclamation in Black Protestant contexts. Far from a new phenomenon, contemplative preaching consists of a robust tradition of orators, theologians, prophets, mystics, and pastors. In different ways, these proclaimers embody a life-giving, boundary-crossing, contemplative vision that fosters spiritual and social transformation.

In Black Contemplative Preaching, E. Trey Clark expands our understanding of Black religiosity by drawing attention to the rich history of contemplative preaching in the Black church. Clark brings this hidden history to light by examining the life and preaching ministry of three twentieth-century African American religious leaders: Howard Thurman, Martin Luther King Jr., and the late Bishop Barbara Harris. In addition, the book discusses the contemplative proclamation of contemporary spiritual leaders such as Ineda Pearl Adesanya, Veronica R. Goines, Luke A. Powery, and Frank A. Thomas, as well as poet and activist Amanda Gorman.

Black Contemplative Preaching challenges monolithic portraits of Black spirituality and ministry through an evaluation of these influential figures. The uncovering of this rich, yet neglected, history of mystical activism among Christian preachers sheds light on the creative synthesis of spirituality, social justice, and proclamation in the Black church. Ultimately, the book presents Black contemplative preaching as a historic and enduring source of theological wisdom that speaks to the political, ecological, and spiritual challenges of our times.

Lanta Davis

(Baker Academic)

We tend to think of the imagination as the realm of fantasy and makebelieve. However, the imagination shapes our vision of reality in that the stories, symbols, and places that capture our hearts become part of who we are.

Becoming by Beholding restores the imagination to its central role in spiritual formation by recovering key works from the Christian tradition, enabling us to experience the formative power of the imagination for ourselves. It also revives “the art of fashioning the soul” as an essential aspect of Christian spiritual formation and character development.

Lanta Davis explains that many of the problems at the heart of the Christian church today–such as nationalism, consumerism, and partisan politics–stem from a crisis of the imagination. She encourages us to reorient our gaze from diseased cultural forms and fix our eyes instead on works from the historic Christian imaginative tradition that better reflect the love, joy, and wonder of the gospel.

Becoming by Beholding will appeal to professors and students in spiritual formation, worldview, and theology and arts courses as well as to all Christian readers interested in the intersection of theology and art. Each chapter introduces a different work of the Christian imagination: icons, sacred architecture, imaginative prayer, bestiaries, and personifications of the virtues and vices. The book also includes a twenty-page insert featuring numerous full-color images.

<<<<< PREV. PAGE |
NEXT PAGE >>>>>
PAGE 4 of 5