Communicating the Faith Indirectly

by Holmer, Paul L.; Gouwens, David J.; Barrett, Lee C., III; Willimon, William H.; Cain, David (AFT)

• ISBN13: 9781608992744
• ISBN10: 1608992748
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-11-01
• Publisher: Cascade Books

Summary

Volume 3 The Paul L. Holmer Papers: Selected Sermons, Addresses, and PrayersIn his teaching and his writing, Paul L. Holmer (1916-2004), Professor of Philosophy at the University of Minnesota (1946-1960) and Noah Porter Professor of Philosophical Theology at Yale Divinity School (1960-1987), not only made important contributions to recent American theology, but was also much in demand as a public speaker and preacher. Following his death, the Holmer family in 2005 donated his papers to the Yale Divinity School Library. In this, the third volume of The Paul L. Holmer Papers: Communicating the Faith Indirectly, the reader will see Holmer's deep concern with the problems and possibilities of the sermon, liturgy, ministry, and spirituality. Inspired by S¿ren Kierkegaard's reflections on indirect communication, and by Ludwig Wittgenstein, Holmer not only reveals his strenuous reflection on the sermon, but also gives concrete examples of his own efforts to communicate, enabling his hearers and readers to make sense of their lives. In the first part of this volume, Holmer reflects upon Kierkegaard's indirect communication, a communication not of knowledge but of human capacity. In other pieces Holmer turns to liturgy, ministry, and spirituality. In the second part of this volume, the reader sees Holmer's own challenging, uncompromising practice of religious and Christian communication, in a selection of his sermons, addresses, and prayers. For anyone concerned with sermons, liturgy, spirituality, and the challenges of ministry, Holmer's essays and addresses will prove indispensable.This is the third volume of The Paul L. Holmer Papers, which includes also volume 1, On Kierkegaard and the Truth, and volume 2, Thinking the Faith with Passion: Selected Essays.

Author Biography

David J. Gouwens is Professor of Theology at Brite Divinity School. He is the author of Kierkegaard's Dialectic of the Imagination (1989) and Kierkegaard as Religious Thinker (1996). Lee C. Barrett III is Stager Professor of Theology at Lancaster Theological Seminary. He is the author of The Heidelberg Catechism (2007), Foundations of Modern Theology: Kierkegaard (2009), and co-editor of Kierkegaard and the Bible (2010).

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. ix
Editors' Preface: Paul L. Holmer and the Religious Address	p. xiii
Acknowledgments	p. xvii
Abbreviations	p. xx
Holmer on the Sermon, Liturgy, Ministry, and Spirituality
Indirect Communication: Something about the Sermon (With References to Kierkegaard and Wittgenstein)	p. 3
About Liturgy and Its Logic	p. 20
The Minister, a Reconsideration: Meditatio, Oratio, Tentatio	p. 31
Spirituality and Self-Deception	p. 45
Sermons, Addresses, and Prayers
Remarks on the Occasion of a Baptism	p. 67
Remarks on the Occasion of a Marriage	p. 76
On Speaking the Truth in Love: Remarks on the Occasion of an Ordination	p. 80
An Advent Sermon: The Gospel according to Luke 1:26-38	p. 95
On Worshipping God: A Meditation on Psalm 73	p. 101
On Receiving Mercy	p. 109
On Being Steadfast: Jesus Christ, the Same...	p. 120
Making Sense Christianly: Baccalaureate Sermon	p. 127
The Transforming Power of Otherworldliness	p. 139
On Believing in Heaven	p. 148
Selected Prayers	p. 159
Afterword: Paul L. Holmer: Self-Effacing, Swaggering, Nonpareil	p. 163
Appendix: Paul L. Holmer: A Select Bibliography	p. 167
Bibliography	p. 171
Index of Names	p. 173
Index of Subjects	p. 175
Scripture Index	p. 177
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