Preaching Creation

The human race, along with the animals and plants that make up the creation of God, face a difficult future due to the multiple ways that the ecosystem on which they all depend is currently under stress. Temperatures are rising along with the oceans. Rain forests are falling along with the polar ice caps. Questions of the environment are now front and center in any catalog of concerns. Those who are called to preach need to include in the subjects of their sermons these environmental issues. Our Bible contains significant resources, often overlooked, as bases on which powerful environmental sermons can be preached. This book introduces the subject of preaching and the environment, offering close looks at important biblical passages that address the cosmos of God, and presenting sample sermons founded on those passages. The book calls for preachers both to name the vast problems we face and to offer the hope of the gospel of God to address them. ""This is a 'must have' book for every preacher who seeks to help congregations towards a faithful understanding of how human beings can join God's purposes for the created world. John Holbert's work is comprehensive: from the creation narratives in Genesis through the Prophets and Wisdom Literature to the less-often-considered role of creation in the Letters, Gospels, and Book of Revelation, John offers incisive (and highly quotable) exegesis and epigrammatic sample sermons."" --Ronald J. Allen Professor of Preaching and New Testament Christian Theological Seminary ""As various pseudo-experts make hay of dubious environmental science, John Holbert offers us reliable and exegetically sound biblical theology in order to help us address a creation that human beings are 'trashing.' Not just this, but Holbert helps the church address these ecological issues via the faith we preach."" --Rev. David N. Mosser, PhD Senior Pastor of First United Methodist Church of Arlington, Texas and author of Transitions: Leading Churches through Change (2011) ""[T]his book . . . changed my thinking about what the Bible says and left me with both help to preach on the subject and the passionate desire to do so! This is a powerful book, the kind that drags you through your resistance and persuades you to enjoy the trip. . . . John Holbert offers fresh exegetical insights, compelling arguments, and examples of the kind of sermons that prime a preacher's pump. But you will come away from this book with more than good compasses and maps, this is a book filled with hope."" --Jana Childers Professor of Homiletics and Speech Communication San Francisco Theological Seminary ""What word can preachers bring to human creatures who are putting the earth at risk? Holbert answers the question with incisive biblical interpretation, scientific knowledge, and lively sermons. He dispels the misuse of religious faith to deny or ignore the environmental crisis, and he demonstrates how to preach a scientifically informed faith that honors the Creator by redefining our role as lovers and partners of the natural order. An essential book for preachers now."" --Thomas H. Troeger Lantz Professor of Christian Communication Yale Divinity School & Institute of Sacred Music John C. Holbert is Lois Craddock Perkins Professor of Homiletics at Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University, where he has been a member of the faculty for thirty-two years. He is the author of seven previous books, each having to do with the relationships between the Bible and the work of preaching.