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John McClure Gives Annual Lyman Beecher Lectures at Yale Divinity School

John McClure presented the 2024 Lyman Beecher Lectures on the topic of “Renewing Preaching Through a Critical Homiletics of Genre.” Lecture one discusses the concept of critical homiletics, which involves the study of preaching as a unique genre of communication among others. Lecture two explores the internal “codes” that make preaching a unique genre and emphasizes the importance of intentional and self-conscious use of these codes. The final lecture presents a case study of a preacher who used critical analysis to renew her preaching in a new context, and a case study about ways that critical homiletics can inform our homiletical understanding of, and response to, the preaching of Christian Nationalism.

Book by Tyshawn Gardner Receives Award

Tyshawn Gardner’s book Social Crisis Preaching: Biblical Proclamation for Troubled Times (Nashville: B&H Academic, 2023) was named “The Preaching Book of the Year” for 2023 by Preaching (p. 24 of the Winter 2024 issue)!  Tyshawn serves as Associate Professor and Director of the Preministerial Scholars Program at Samford University.  Congratulations to Tyshawn!

Andre Johnson Receives Scholarship Award

Congratulations to Andre E. Johnson, the Benjamin W. Rawlings Jr. professor of rhetoric and media studies in the department of communication and film at the University of Memphis, for receiving the 2023 Orlando L. Taylor Distinguished Scholarship Award in Africana Communication. Presented annually by the National Communication Association, the prize honors a scholar whose work has contributed to the study of African American or African Diaspora communication and culture. You can read more about the award and Andre’s accomplishments here.

Book by Luke Powery Receives Award

Luke A. Powery’s book Becoming Human: The Holy Spirit and the Rhetoric of Race (WJKP, 2022) was named “2023 Book of the Year” by the Religious Communication Association at their recent meeting in November.  You can read more about the award here.