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The Foolishness of God: Reclaiming Preaching in the Anglican Tradition
Preaching seems to have fallen on hard times in recent years. The pulpit has been marginalized, the sermon has been trivialized, and priests and ministers have felt the pressure to leave the study for the board room. Now we are counselors, executives, program directors, and political pundits-too often forgetting that God has called us first to be preachers. Preaching is utter madness. But it is precisely through the insanity of the preached Word that the foolishness of God is made manifest-a folly that upends the world's wisdom, a weakness that demolishes all other power structures-the proclamation of the Crucified God who gives life to all who believe. The Foolishness of God urges us to remember our heritage without resting on our laurels. In these pages, God's spokesmen are called to blow the dust from atop the sacred desk and preach the Word as though lives depended upon it-because they do.
223 pages, Paperback
Published June 24, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 28, 2020
This book is a must-buy for preachers young and old whether Anglican or otherwise. I am still searching for the words to describe what I read and that may be intended by the author. It was a wonderful ebb and flow from correction to doxology, from instruction to praise. I have read many preaching books over the years that tackle things like technique, outlining, philosophy, etc., but this book is none of those things and yet all of them. If you expect a work that holds your hand through the outlining process of a sermon, you will be disappointed and then thoroughly surprised by the fact that what you were looking for is not what you needed.
This work excites the reader and moves him to take up his pen with renewed vigor and purpose. I have never wanted to write a sermon after reading a book on preaching until now. He writes about beauty beautifully. He writes about purpose purposefully. I cannot recommend this book enough. It was a delight to read.
Whether you are a minister, elder, priest, or churchman, this book could provide many helpful insights into the importance of preaching and our need for good, true, and beautiful sermons preached by men touched by the glory of God through prayer. Buy it.
This work excites the reader and moves him to take up his pen with renewed vigor and purpose. I have never wanted to write a sermon after reading a book on preaching until now. He writes about beauty beautifully. He writes about purpose purposefully. I cannot recommend this book enough. It was a delight to read.
Whether you are a minister, elder, priest, or churchman, this book could provide many helpful insights into the importance of preaching and our need for good, true, and beautiful sermons preached by men touched by the glory of God through prayer. Buy it.
December 27, 2020
Dr. Meeks lays out his case for a return to biblically faithful, passionate, poetic, and evangelical preaching. If you read that first sentence and think, “oh that sounds boring”, read the sentence again. As is often the case in my own anecdotal experience, preaching becomes a stack of propositional truths, truncating the fullness of the scriptures by leaving out the poetic beauty and the imperatives that naturally flow from redemptive-historical preaching. A few notes from the book:
1. Loved his arguments for the use of liturgical calendar. I disagree with them but they were thought provoking.
2. Loved his use of the Quadriga and the example of using it.
3. This guy is a master of prose. I need to figure out how I can listen to him preach. If anyone knows, private message me.
4. Preaching is poetry. Preachers should practice poetic preaching to avoid this: “for many Protestant pulpiteers, a sermon is little more than a running commentary, festooned with footnotes by dead Germans. Most heavy on the “orthy” and weak on the “doxy”. This usually degenerates into something more like orthodusty. After hearing the 437th quote from Wilhelm Emmanuel Freiherr von Ketteler, some parishioners are ready to cry out, “”let the dead bury their dead and be done with it already!””
5. Dr. Meeks writes with the wit and precision of a modern day Chesterton. He’s straight is hilarious.
1. Loved his arguments for the use of liturgical calendar. I disagree with them but they were thought provoking.
2. Loved his use of the Quadriga and the example of using it.
3. This guy is a master of prose. I need to figure out how I can listen to him preach. If anyone knows, private message me.
4. Preaching is poetry. Preachers should practice poetic preaching to avoid this: “for many Protestant pulpiteers, a sermon is little more than a running commentary, festooned with footnotes by dead Germans. Most heavy on the “orthy” and weak on the “doxy”. This usually degenerates into something more like orthodusty. After hearing the 437th quote from Wilhelm Emmanuel Freiherr von Ketteler, some parishioners are ready to cry out, “”let the dead bury their dead and be done with it already!””
5. Dr. Meeks writes with the wit and precision of a modern day Chesterton. He’s straight is hilarious.
July 25, 2022
This is a five-star book, but I’m giving it 4 because I’m a Baptist and contractually prohibited from expressing more than 80% support of another denomination.
Dr. Meeks is the best thing on Twitter, a skilled wordsmith, a credit to Reformed Christians, and the South’s most distinguished canon theologian.
Anyone who frequents a pulpit (sequential expositional guys included) will benefit from his insight and exhortation.
Dr. Meeks is the best thing on Twitter, a skilled wordsmith, a credit to Reformed Christians, and the South’s most distinguished canon theologian.
Anyone who frequents a pulpit (sequential expositional guys included) will benefit from his insight and exhortation.
July 23, 2020
First, Dr Meeks comes out swinging. He has something to say and I enjoyed the reading experience of that kind of style, as much as I enjoyed the content.
Second, this is finally a book about preaching I can recommend to other Anglicans.
Third, the book can serve as a tool for unity between high and low church Anglicans.
Fourth, it is a solid resource for the veteran and the uninitiated in the tradition. There are not only many GREAT quotes from the fathers, but lists of resources for those who want to go deeper.
Fifth, Dr Meeks is a poet. So you’re going to get a lot about beauty, which he (rightly) claims, inhabits God’s space and therefore easily traverses the limitations of systematics.
Lastly, it is so well written and so warm in its authorial voice that as a reader I felt like the author actually respected me, and could draw me in like a friend.
4.5/5 stars!
Second, this is finally a book about preaching I can recommend to other Anglicans.
Third, the book can serve as a tool for unity between high and low church Anglicans.
Fourth, it is a solid resource for the veteran and the uninitiated in the tradition. There are not only many GREAT quotes from the fathers, but lists of resources for those who want to go deeper.
Fifth, Dr Meeks is a poet. So you’re going to get a lot about beauty, which he (rightly) claims, inhabits God’s space and therefore easily traverses the limitations of systematics.
Lastly, it is so well written and so warm in its authorial voice that as a reader I felt like the author actually respected me, and could draw me in like a friend.
4.5/5 stars!
April 4, 2022
A real treat to read and think about the practical, sage, experienced advice on preaching here. The refined style is at times almost overwhelmingly developed, but reflects an impressively developed rhetorician that inspires me to work on my own wordsmithing. More than that, I am inspired to think about preaching in a more expansive way as the words of God making the Word of God sacramentally present to his people.
August 1, 2020
Invigorating. Challenging. Instructive. As a Baptist preacher of 24 years, I've read most of the major books on preaching out there. From Spurgeon's Lectures To My Students, to Lloyd Jones' Preaching and Preachers, to Vines' and Shaddox's Power In The Pulpit and so on. But this book stands out. Though written in unusually pleasant prose, The Foolishness of God still maintains an intellectually stimulating instructiveness that will appeal to any minister desiring to be effective in the pulpit. The sermon examples provided in the chapter on the quadriga entitled "Low Down Chariot" are worth the price of the book alone. The book is unique in that it is not cardboard instructions on how to formulate a sermon. Instead, it ennobles the sermon itself. It exalts the art. Powerful preaching begins with a belief in preaching. This book will resurrect in you a love for the endeavor itself, a conviction in its value and a passion for the performance of it. Though handling the subject with immense reverence, the author lightens the mood with a perfect sprinkle of humor throughout. If you buy one book on preaching this decade, let it be this one!
August 12, 2023
Meeks is chestertonian in his prose and the way that he keeps you guessing. His writing style is filled with life! There were moments where I was coming at the bit to go and glorify God through preaching while reading. Very encouraging. Thanks for getting it for me, Bekah!
Specifically: I need to chew more on his critique of lectio continua. I hear him that sometimes preaching straight through books can leave me feeling like I am not giving people the whole counsel of the word. But over a long ministry this method seems to be the method that will produce greatest love for the word.
His chapter on preaching beauty as synonymous with preaching glory was very helpful. And his warning against preaching to Christian’s as of they need to be justified again every Sunday was well received. I want to love and exalt Christ in my preaching.
At times the book was irreverent. In his attempt to be fresh, he went too far a few times, best exemplified by him calling God “chatty”
But the overall tone of the book is one of reverence and awe
Specifically: I need to chew more on his critique of lectio continua. I hear him that sometimes preaching straight through books can leave me feeling like I am not giving people the whole counsel of the word. But over a long ministry this method seems to be the method that will produce greatest love for the word.
His chapter on preaching beauty as synonymous with preaching glory was very helpful. And his warning against preaching to Christian’s as of they need to be justified again every Sunday was well received. I want to love and exalt Christ in my preaching.
At times the book was irreverent. In his attempt to be fresh, he went too far a few times, best exemplified by him calling God “chatty”
But the overall tone of the book is one of reverence and awe
August 12, 2020
Dr. Meeks knows very well how to use words and turn a phrase. A delightful read in many ways accompanied with smiles and laughter. But there is nothing shallow about the delight along the way; they are substantive smiles.
August 2, 2020
Dr. Meeks' collection of essays calling the contemporary Anglican Church to reclaim robust preaching is inspiring, challenging, convicting, and, most importantly, worshipful. Page after page, Meeks recounts the glory of the gospel and the beauty of preaching nothing but Christ and Him crucified, through every text in Holy Scripture, while modeling through beautiful poetic prose how the preacher should scrupulously use words to reveal the true Word, Jesus Christ.
Meeks writes, “We must recover passion, persuasion, and a good sense of poetry. We must preach the whole gospel to the whole person. We must enlighten minds, enflame affections, and excite wills. We must preach a lovely Lord to a lost world.” And indeed, in his book, he did precisely that.
I highly recommend this book to preachers new and old who desire to grow in their call to preach the risen Christ in a sacramental way.
Meeks writes, “We must recover passion, persuasion, and a good sense of poetry. We must preach the whole gospel to the whole person. We must enlighten minds, enflame affections, and excite wills. We must preach a lovely Lord to a lost world.” And indeed, in his book, he did precisely that.
I highly recommend this book to preachers new and old who desire to grow in their call to preach the risen Christ in a sacramental way.
September 14, 2020
4.5 stars
Review pending... (in the mean time, buy and read for joy and wisdom and regular belly laughs).
Review pending... (in the mean time, buy and read for joy and wisdom and regular belly laughs).
January 20, 2022
I have read many books on preaching. Until now, Tim Keller's would probably be my favorite. However, Meeks's little guide is now king of the hill. This is a devotionally robust book on preaching. Imagine if G.K. Chesterton had written a guide to preaching; I think that is the best way I can describe this book.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews