Preaching as Paying Attention: Theological Reflection in the Pulpit
Digital Verbum Edition
Overview
Author Ed Foley―priest, preacher, and teacher―invites preachers to an awareness of the world and the people around them as a lens for preaching God’s Incarnate Word and inviting people into the Paschal Mystery. He maintains that paying attention is a key to theological reflection.
When pondering a work of art or a catastrophe, the preacher asks, “Where is God in all of this?” and “How does my preaching invite people to respond to that presence?” Fr. Foley presents excerpts of his own homilies and references to poets, scientists, and other resources―some a bit surprising―as models and suggestions that might draw a preacher’s attention as a sign of God present and active in our midst. In short, this book offers a mindset, not a method, for preachers.
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- Maintains that paying attention is a key to theological reflection.
- Presents excerpts of his own homilies and references to poets, scientists, and other resources.
- Offers a mindset, not a method, for preachers.
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 The Journey into Attending
- Chapter 2 Here Comes Everybody
- Chapter 3 The Liturgies of the Church and the World
- Chapter 4 Reversing the Galileo Effect
- Chapter 5 The Arts in the Pulpit
- Chapter 6 Some Assembly Required
- Epilogue
- Index
- Scriptural References
The practice of theological reflection—so widely embraced in pastoral and spiritual formation—has rarely been talked about in homiletic preparation, but no more. Foley’s work facilitates a needed connection between disciplines that promises to bear much fruit.
—Ann M. Garrido, Associate Professor of Homiletics, Aquinas Institute of Theology
In this wise book, Foley inspires preachers to witness to Christ in our midst and God at work in the chaos of life by turning their attention not away from but beyond lectionary, liturgy, and Church to sacredly notice God present in the great and small moments of life. Foley demonstrates how God, present in art, film, poetry, and science, enlivens sermon preparation and renders the Gospel more relevant so the assembly expects to encounter the divine in everyday life. Yet the true gift of this book is a scholar and teacher who never ceased to be preacher and priest, welcoming us into a ministry and process he obviously loves.
—Craig Alan Satterlee, Bishop in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, former teacher of preaching at Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and the University of Notre Dame
This book is a gift from Ed Foley to preachers and to those who attend to their words. In six formative chapters, this book calls out for an attentive presence to word and community. Paying attention becomes the cornerstone for creative preaching, inviting renewal and justice in worshipping communities.
—Reverend Richard N. Fragomeni, Professor of Liturgy and Preaching, Catholic Theological Union