116 - Preaching Jesus Christ: An Exercise in Homiletic Theology

Preaching Jesus Christ: An Exercise in Homiletic Theology
By David G. Buttrick
Philadelphia, Fortress, 1988. 94 pp. $5.95.

"Because Christ comes to us in many ways…. he forms in consciousness as a complex, indeed mysterious, figure, full of import. He may not be reduced to a stock character with a

118 - Preaching Jesus Christ: An Exercise in Homiletic Theology

single trait (love) and a single plot purpose (salvation); he is symbolically profound. Somehow, in our day, the pulpit must once more communicate Christ, a Christ who displays complex humanity and yet the fullness of light that is God.

"The question: How?"

In a lively homiletical style, Buttrick, who is Professor of Homiletics and Liturgics at Vanderbilt Divinity School, provides some waymarks on the road to answering that question. He places special stress on Christ as inaugurator of the Kingdom, God's new age. Buttrick's book will prove especially helpful to preachers and to teachers of preaching, but it will also stimulate the thinking of all who would bear witness to Christ in a world forgetful of traditional symbols.

David L. Bartlett
Union Theological Seminary
Richmond, Va.