The End of Words: The Language of Reconciliation in a Culture of Violence (The Lyman Beecher Lectures in Preaching) - Softcover

Lischer, Richard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802862802 ISBN 13: 9780802862808

Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2008

Synopsis

After the horrors and violence of the twentieth century, words can seem futile. In this reflection on the place of preaching today, Richard Lischer recognizes that our mass-communication culture is exhausted by words. Facing up to language's disappointments and dead ends, he opens a path to its true end.

With chapters on vocation, interpretation, narration, and reconciliation, The End of Words shows how faithful reading of Scripture rather than flashy performance paves the way for effective preaching; Lischer challenges conventional storytelling with a deeper and more biblical view of narrative preaching. The ultimate purpose of preaching, he argues, is to speak God's peace, the message of reconciliation.

While Lischer's End of Words will surely be invaluable to pastors and preachers, his honest, readable style will appeal to anyone concerned with speaking Christianly.

About this title

About the Author:

Richard Lischer is James T. and Alice Mead ClelandProfessor of Preaching at Duke Divinity School. Beforejoining the Duke faculty, he served as pastor of Lutherancongregations in Illinois and Virginia. A graduate ofConcordia Senior College and Concordia Seminary, he alsoholds an M.A. in English from Washington University in St.Louis and a Ph.D. in theology from the University ofLondon. He is the author of numerous books on preaching,theology, and ministry, including A Theology ofPreaching: The Dynamics of the Gospel and theprize-winning The Preacher King: Martin Luther King, Jr.and the Word That Moved America. He is also theco-editor (with William Willimon) of the ConciseEncyclopedia of Preaching. The story of his firstpastorate, Open Secrets: A Memoir of Faith andDiscovery, has been widely anthologized, and his mostrecent Eerdmans book, The Company of Preachers, wasnamed Best Book in ministry in 2002 by ChristianityToday. The End of Words is based on his Lyman BeecherLectures in Preaching delivered at Yale Divinity School.Professor Lischer and his wife live in Orange County, NorthCarolina.

Review:

Gardner C. Taylor
"With deft strokes, piercing analysis, and characteristic emphasis on the power of proclaiming the gospel of reconciliation, Richard Lischer here gives the community of faith a solving, saving word derived from the Word — which became flesh."

Reviews in Religion & Theology
"Richard Lischer gets to the core of what preaching the Gospel is all about in a time when the spoken word is facing difficult challenges from many directions. . . The End of Words is so powerful that it should be required reading in every seminary course of homiletics."

William H. Willimon
"Richard Lischer is a master of words who has been mastered by the Word. With eloquent verbal precision and self-evident love for the homiletical vocation, with cruciform Lutheran theology and gentle Midwestern wit, he recalls us to the chief ends of preaching."

Heidi B. Neumark
"Richard Lischer's book could not be more timely. To paraphrase his own insight, this book doesn't entertain; it does something far better. It sustains and forms, lifting a powerful language of hope above the vitriol that marks far too much religious conversation."

Congregations
"In the grand Beecher tradition of preachers like Frederich Buechner and Barbara Brown Taylor, Richard Lischer offers this book to inspire and engage those desiring to be God's mutually faithful preachers and hearers today."

Theological Book Review
"[Richard Lischer] issues a challenge to return to the basics of preaching, to abandon PowerPoint and movie clips in favor of the telling and re-telling of the counter-cultural yet deeply relevant story of the cross."

Interpretation
"Lischer does not merely talk about preaching. He preaches, preaches faithfully, and, in doing so, points reliably and eloquently to the proper 'end of words.' '"

Theology
"Writing with passion and a Lutheran conviction, [Richard Lischer] calls those who would enter the pulpit back to the preaching of the gospel of Christ crucified, and away from the slick 'PowerPoint' presentation which characterizes so much preaching today."

Christian Century
“’The ministry of the word,’ Lischer says near the end of his book, ‘is an endless card game played out among people who never stop talking with and caring for one another.’ This is the truest definition of preaching imaginable, offered by someone whose love of the game has given scores of others reason to keep coming back to the table.”
 
Journal of the Evangelical Homiletics Society
“A valuable read for preachers and teachers of preaching. It is an important dialogue partner.”
 
Trinity Seminary Review
“Anyone who could get excited about theological revival led by the preaching of the cross should read this book.”
 
Lutheran Partners
“A rich source of encouragement and wisdom from one of our church’s finest preachers and teachers.”
 

About this edition

• Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0802862802
• ISBN 13: 9780802862808
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192