Review of “Finally Comes the Poet”
Wow, this book was deep. If you are exploring a post liberal perspective on preaching, this is an excellent text to read. The text was given as speeches during a lectureship some years ago, and are relevant and needed for today’s pulpit. The book is really hard to summarizes because there is really so much that is said, and most lines are packed with truth and insight. The book should be studied, and processed slowly. You will see the need to unleash the text from cultural and religious boxes, and allow the text once again to work its wonder on the hearts of man. The text is challenging, and the worldview that is given is radical. But in reading this book, you will reflect on preaching, and the style of your preaching. You are preaching to people that have made the text safe, changed the text’s meaning to mesh with one worldview, and the church has done this. As a true preacher of the gospel, you unsettle this. You are more than providing facts, stories, or bullet points, rather you are a poet that can speak in such a way that the church can hear the radical message of Jesus again. It seems that the church does not believe that the gospel is unsettling news any longer because they have heard it all, how sad, but sometimes how true. If you care about preaching, and the powerful nature of the word of God, this is a great book to read.
Related posts:
- Review of “The Word Militant”
- Review of “Preaching Jesus”
- Review of “Applying the Sermon”
- Review of “Peculiar Speech”
- Review “Review of “Effectiveness by Numbers”
About The Author
I read this book years ago in a David Bland seminar on Preaching from the OT. Wow that was in 1994!! I feel old!! People can get thrown off by that lingo “Post Liberal” and avoid the book (not being critical of you though). It is way more than that it is a clear demonstration of the wondrous ways the “Good News” flows from the Hebrew Bible to even us today. I will never forget his articulation that there are in fact four “partners” in the meeting of our world and the biblical world: the text, the baptized community, the specific occasion, and the “better world.” The biblical exposition in the book is deep with insight. I would recommend the book to anyone seeking to proclaim God’s Word in our world. Thanks for highlighting this great book.