The Homiletical Plot: The Sermon As Narrative Art Form [Paperback]

Eugene L. Lowry (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1980

"Full of ideas and clear in style. Gathers the basic raw material for a sermon in a lively way. A fresh new look that listeners and preachers are wanting desperately".----Dr. Fred B. Craddock Emory University

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Eugene L. Lowry is William K. McElvaney Professor of Preaching Emeritus at Saint Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Missouri. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 100 pages
• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Pr (April 1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0804216525
• ISBN-13: 978-0804216524
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #169,371 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read for the Serious Preacher, January 4, 2003

By 

Arthur Joseph (Oklahoma City, OK) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Homiletical Plot, Expanded Edition: The Sermon as Narrative Art Form (Paperback)

This book is for anyone who is serious about preaching; even if you have been preaching for a while! For the new preacher, Lowry explains how to make your sermons interesting, Biblical, relevent, specific and memorable! For the seasoned preacher he illuminates several ideas that you may already be aware of subconciously by using in depth analysis of the five parts of "the sermon as preached" and by giving excelent examples and analogies. Even if you do not adopt his specific format this book enables you to make your style more effective and crisper. This book should be in every preacher's library!

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Preachers are meant to be story-tellers, August 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Homiletical Plot: The Sermon As Narrative Art Form (Paperback)

Lowry challenges the usual preaching style (tell them what you're going to say, say it, then tell them what you've said). He says no good storyteller gives away the climax of a story like that. Rather, sermons should be stories with: plot, tension, climax, etc. The book was easy to read, and his advice for sermon preparation has been very instructive. Experientially, the times I have used this approach, I have gotten many favorable comments on the sermons.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent & concise 'how-to' book on narrative preaching., November 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Homiletical Plot: The Sermon As Narrative Art Form (Paperback)

Lowry's book is the best I have read on narrative preaching. He is easy to read and his suggested homiletical plot is remarkably simple and yeteasy to apply to all kinds of texts, regardless of their genre. A narrative sermon - as Lowry has made clear - does not have to be preached from a narrative passage of Scripture. Another excellent point he makes (which needs to be heard by today's preachers) is that the sermon ought NOT be constructed like an essay, which is pieced together one point upon another. No, a sermon is an event which HAPPENS. Therefore the congregation needs to hear and experience the sermon in such a way that it transforms their thinking because they have had an experience which leads them to greater faith in Christ. In teaching homiletics courses in the future, I will certainly make use of this book as a required text!