Lectures on Preaching:: Guides to Sermons and Ministry, Delivered Before the Divinity School of Yale College in January and February, 1877

by Phillips Brooks

In Lectures on Preaching, Phillips Brooks — one of the most eloquent voices in nineteenth-century American Christianity — offers timeless guidance on the art and soul of preaching. Delivered to students at Yale Divinity School in 1877, these lectures combine the intellectual depth of a theologian with the compassionate wisdom of a pastor. Brooks challenges preachers not merely to instruct, but to inspire — to communicate divine truth through the living energy of personality, conviction, and love.With rare clarity, Brooks explores the preacher's inner the cultivation of sincerity, moral courage, and empathy as essential to ministry. He rejects mechanical eloquence in favor of authenticity, urging ministers to speak as human beings to human beings — not as performers, but as witnesses to faith. Drawing on Scripture, philosophy, and his own pulpit experience, he articulates a vision of preaching that is both deeply spiritual and profoundly practical.More than a manual for clergy, Lectures on Preaching is a meditation on communication itself — on how ideas, when fused with integrity and spirit, become transformative. Over a century later, Brooks's insights still resonate with anyone seeking to speak truth with clarity and grace. It remains a cornerstone text in the theology of ministry, revered for its warmth, humility, and enduring moral power.

218 pages, Kindle Edition

Expected publication October 23, 2025

About the author

Phillips Brooks (December 13, 1835 – January 23, 1893) was an American Episcopal clergyman and author, long the Rector of Boston's Trinity Church and briefly Bishop of Massachusetts, and particularly remembered as lyricist of the Christmas hymn, "O Little Town of Bethlehem".

In the Episcopal liturgical calendar he is remembered on January 23.

Born in Boston, Brooks was descended through his father, William Gray Brooks, from the Rev. John Cotton; through his mother, Mary Ann Phillips, he was a great-grandson of Samuel Phillips, Jr., founder of Phillips Academy (Andover, Massachusetts). Three of Brooks' five brothers – Frederic, Arthur and John Cotton – were eventually ordained in the Episcopal Church.

In 1877 Brooks published a course of lectures upon preaching, which he had delivered at the theological school of Yale University, and which are an expression of his own experience. In 1879 appeared the Bohlen Lectures on The Influence of Jesus. In 1878 he published his first volume of sermons, and from time to time issued other volumes, including Sermons Preached in English Churches (1883) and "The Candle of the Lord" and Other Sermons (1895).

Brooks also introduced Helen Keller to Christianity and to Anne Sullivan.