T. David Gordon

This book was okay, albeit not what I had been hoping for. It has some good bits about the high Reformational view of preaching, but other than that, Gordon mainly focuses on the sensibilities he believes to be lacking in most preachers in the post-television era--the ability to read texts closely and to write clearly--and which ministers must go out of their way to cultivate if they wish to preach well. The book is heavily anecdotal in its assessment of contemporary preaching, and on the whole I just wasn't too impressed, even though I wouldn't disagree sharply with much of anything he proposed.… (more)

Gordan claims, "To teach the Word of God well, one must already have cultivated, at a minimum, three sensibilities: the sensibility of the close reading of texts, the sensibility of composed communication, and the sensibility of the significant." He argues that modern media has made it extremely difficult for us to cultivate those sensibilities, and because of that preaching suffers.

No doubt, Gordan throws a couple of wild pitches, but his overall quality is undeniable, and that makes this an important addition to the preaching bullpen.… (more)

This is a reactionary book, which makes for great reading. Gordon is passionate, and has some very important things to say. He critiques four types of bad preaching, and argues that they are in large measure the result of a pastoral mind shaped by image and noise rather than text. The answer for Gordon is to encourage pre-seminarians to major in English lit, to broaden their minds and give them the ability to interact meaningfully with a text, to communicate in a clear, ordered fashion, and to do so before the study of Greek and Hebrew, and before souls are dependent on the preacher for their food.

Wise counsel, and I for one could not have been better prepared for seminary than the liberal arts degree I have, but I do wonder if Gordon overplays his hand a bit. Of course, even if he does, he is pushing the pendulum back in the right direction, and the chances of this book causing a massive overcorrection are slim.

All in all, a helpful and stimulating book.… (more)