When it comes to understanding a passage in the Bible, context is everything. What historical events surround a book’s composition? What larger literary unit is a given passage part of? What central themes explored by the book touch on the verses in question? If we don’t know the answer to questions like these, we are ill-prepared to speak to–and especially preach about–a passage’s meaning. The Preacher’s Bible Handbook aims to meet this need for extra help in preparing the sermon. Essays on each of the biblical books introduce the most relevant historical, literary, and theological facts about the book. Each is designed to aid the preacher in setting the stage for a sermon on any passage in the Bible.
“Preachers have needed a book like this for years, and at last here it is! The first element in any preaching process is getting acquainted with the book from which the preacher’s text is taken. Now this process can be streamlined each week, allowing the preacher to move more quickly to the particulars of the text at hand. Top scholars have been recruited for this task, and the results are not only useful but inspiring.”–John S. McClure, Charles G. Finney Professor of Preaching and Worship, Vanderbilt Divinity School
O. Wesley Allen, Jr., is the Lois Craddock Perkins Professor of Homiletics at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, and the codirector of the Perkins Center for Preaching Excellence. He is a homiletician and New Testament scholar who brings his expertise in the Synoptic Gospels together with a conversational model of preaching. Allen has authored and edited over thirty books, including The Homiletic of All Believers: A Conversational Approach; The Preacher’s Bible Handbook; and Preaching and the Thirty-Second Commercial: Lessons from Advertising for the Pulpit with Carrie La Ferle. Allen is an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church and past president of the Academy of Homiletics.
