Overhearing the Gospel: Revised and Expanded Edition

by Fred B. Craddock

Revised and Expanded Edition! When originally published in 1978, Overhearing the Gospel introduced "narrative preaching" and forever changed the shape of contemporary preaching. Now a new generation of preachers can learn from the master himself in this revised and expanded edition of Craddock's groundbreaking method.

Genres: Church, Nonfiction, Christian

Paperback

First published November 30, 1977

Reviews

[Ron · Rating 5 out of 5]

While this book is about preaching, it also has lots of practical advice on your day to day life. The author clearly loves Soren Kierkegaard and has numerous references to him and bases the book off of Kierkegaard quote:

There is no lack of information in a Christian land; something else is lacking, and this is something which the one cannot directly communicate to the other.

To do the book justice, you should read it. One of the premises is that people don't want to be preached at (to) but should be interested in hearing your stories and get caught up. This is similar to Jesus and the parables. The thought is that people should "overhear" your sermon (life) as you are talking to God rather than preaching to them.

The book ends with three sermons. The one on the Rich Man and Lazarus is definitely worth a read.

[John Majors · Rating 4 out of 5]

Craddock analyzes Kierkegaard's approach to communication: indirect vs. direct speech. Kierkegaard believed indirect to be the best (such were parables and narratives and even Jesus' very appearance on earth - God in human flesh is an indirect way for God to approach) - yet it requires much wisdom.

So much to like and admire in this book. Would have given it a 5/5 if it weren't for the last few chapters - his actual sermon examples of his attempt to illustrate these principles were a complete bore. Which makes sense after reading the rest of the book (Craddock predicted they would be).

It's a short read worth taking the time to pick up.

[Steve Long · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I finished this immensely helpful book, I decided that this is one to read every year. I love both the preaching and writing of the late Fred Craddock.

[Henry Sturcke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though it's a few decades old, well worth reading, since his diagnosis is unfortunately still accurate and his prescription helpful. I was fascinated by the way he interacted with Kierkegaard in his analysis, which revised my opinion of the gloomy Dane. One drawback: I was not able to access the endnotes via the hyperlinks. This feature seems to work in other Kindle books, so perhaps this is a problem with the coding of the electronic file. [review first posted on Amazon.com]

[Seth Pierce · Rating 4 out of 5]

An exceptional, and challenging, read applying Kierkegaard's concept of indirect communication to homiletics. Well worth a couple reads. The only shortfall is when he gives you three of his sermon mss to illustrate the concepts he breaks a few rules he encourages the reader to follow, and his outlines along with mss would be been more helpful.

Goof stuff.