"Through this book, Craddock has, for a quarter century, been teaching countless students to preach lively, substantive, and faithful sermons. Preaching will... take its place, alongside the texts of Augustine, Fenelon, Broadus, Luccock, and others, as benchmark examples of the best wisdom in the treasury of homiletics."---Thomas G. Long, from the Foreword<BR><BR>This groundbreaking volume has guided generations of students and pastors through the daunting challenge of learning to preach. Fred Craddock weaves history, theology, and hermeneutics into a practical, comprehensive, and contemporary text on how to prepare and deliver the sermon.<BR><BR>Painstakingly prepared for seminary students and clergy, Preaching answers the fundamental question, How does one speak a word from God? This format provides an intelligible guide to sermon preparation and allows for concentrated study of all the particular dimensions of the homiletical process.<BR><BR>"Fred Craddock's is a book filled with practical wisdom. It is free of the older homiletical prescriptions that too often confined the preacher's creativity. In place of rules, Craddock invites his readers to participate with him in the whole cycle of the preparation and delivery of sermons, and to do so in such a way that readers supplement the author's ideas with their own experiences and insights. Best of all, the book is free of jargon and the technical language of homiletics and theology. Preaching is a liberating book."---Richard Lischer, Duke University Divinity School