homework
Participants will be expected to read Ronald Allen’s, Hearing the Sermon: Relationship, Content, Feeling (Chalice Press, 2004), especially pp. 1-17, 18-38, 42-58, 70-86, 114-131.
This book is one of the first four to come from the listener study and develops a theory about how people listen to sermons. The other three volumes from the listener study:
- Mary Alice Mulligan and Ronald J. Allen, Make the Word Come Alive: Lessons from Laity (Chalice Press, 2006). This is a hands-on book that gives practical advice for preaching based on the interviews.
- Mary Alice Mulligan, Dawn Ottoni Wilhelm, Diane Turner-Sharazz, and Ronald J. Allen, Believing in Preaching: What Listeners Hear in Sermons (Chalice Press, 2005). This book reports how listeners respond to basic questions about preaching, such as What is the purpose of preaching? How does the Bible function in preaching?
- John S. McClure, Ronald J. Allen, Dale P. Andrews, L. Susan Bond, Dan P. Moseley, and Lee G. Ramsey, Listening to Listeners: Homiletical Case Studies. This book prints the transcripts of six interviews (five individual interviews and one small-group interview) and analyzes what the individual listeners say about what engages them in preaching and what does not.
New Testament Preaching with Dr. Osvaldo Vena
A socio-literary analysis of the gospel of Mark that will emphasize the role of the community in the shaping of the story as well as the way in which the story was first transmitted orally and finally fixed in writing. Homework is to read the entire book of Mark in a couple of different versions, i.e. NRSV or NIV.