Sewanee, Episcopal Preaching Foundation collaborate for lectures and workshops
Episcopal News Service. November 14, 2008 [111408-01]
In a new and growing partnership, School of Theology at the University of the South and the Episcopal Preaching Foundation recently co-sponsored two workshops exclusively for seminary graduates who had attended the foundation's annual Preaching Excellence Program and had come to Sewanee for the annual DuBose Lectures.
One workshop explored the implications of Dr. Fred B. Craddock's theology for preaching in Advent, and the second provided an opportunity for participants to talk with Craddock about his DuBose Lectures and other issues in preaching. Dr. William Brosend, Sewanee associate professor of homiletics, helped present the workshops.
Craddock, the Bandy Distinguished Professor of Preaching and New Testament Emeritus, Candler School of Theology at Emory University, preached a sermon and delivered three lectures as part of the DuBose gathering October 30-31.
More than 350 alumni, students, friends, and area pastoral leaders filled the Chapel of the Apostles and Guerry Auditorium in Sewanee, Tennessee recently to hear Craddock. The lectures, given annually in memory of the seminary’s pioneering leader, William Porcher DuBose, were titled "Preaching Jesus: Jesus in the Letter to the Hebrews."
Craddock addressed the meaning of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. His first lecture, titled "Jesus Before His Death," examined the life of Jesus on earth and what it meant for the church according to the Letter to the Hebrews, contrasting the narrative theology of Hebrews with that of Paul and the Gospels. In his second lecture, "Jesus in His Death," Craddock reflected on the Hebrews writer's understanding of the atoning death of Jesus, exploring the variety of metaphors the writer used to say that which is finally beyond words. In his third lecture, "Jesus After His Death," Craddock looked at the writer’s understanding of the continuing ministry of Jesus on behalf of the church's post-resurrection ministry. The lectures will be published in a forthcoming edition of the Sewanee Theological Review, and podcasts of the lectures are available here.
The Episcopal Preaching Foundation also announced a pilot program to bring the Preaching Excellence Program to priests in the field at the diocesan level. On January 13-14, 2009 Brosend will lead a workshop for priests of the two Ohio dioceses on "Preaching to the Uninterested, the Unconvinced, and the Unimpressed."