Customer Reviews

Design for Preaching

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Welcome to the Wittgenstein of homiletics: H. Grady Davis. Many books on preaching provide only rules for fitting together the various pieces of preaching. Instead of this, Davis shows us the picture on the front of the puzzle box so that we can see what real preaching is. Davis is not concerned with specific rules for preaching, but rather with developing the preachers sense of form. His central idea is that substance and form are inseperable. An idea, he writes, is like a tree with branches reaching up towards the light. Davis walks the reader through finding ideas (trunks) to discovering how they develop (branches). I would recommend this book to anyone who feels the burden to preach the Word.

Even though this book was written in 1958, it is one of the best books on preaching ever written. It is both a systematic and philosophical approach to the design of biblical expository preaching. H. Grady Davis does a masterful job of exposing the faults of modern preaching while at the same time expounding on the necessity of solid expository design and formation of biblical sermons. I have not read any book since that has improved on Davis' work. His approach is for the evangelical preacher who wants to communicate God's Word as God's Word. This book is invaulable for the seminary student as well as the experienced preacher. Reading and applying this book to your own personal study habits will benefit the reader greatly. Read this book, you will not be disappointed.

There are few books that survive, or even deserve to survive, for more than fifty years, but this is one of them. Design for Preaching is a true classic that moved me as a seminary student in the mid-60s and still does, because Grady calls forth the intuitive artist as well as the skilled craftsman. He helps the preacher to identify and develop one clear thought that will have a lasting impact on the listener. It is a profound work because it shines with clarity and simplicity, yet does so with poetic beauty.