Robert Allan Hill

Many of our current, lasting controversies in American Christianity are due, in part, to the willingness of liberals to champion reason and experience while leaving Scripture and tradition to conservatives, and vice versa. The liberal biblical theological voice, once quite strong, has fallen silent. Grounded in a solid knowledge of biblical study, Partnership in the Gospel presents a series of exercises, or angles of perspective, intended to support the rigorous consideration of biblical theological perspective that preachers, teachers, and lay leaders need. This work draws from a range of scholarly, theological, and everyday voices, and with kindred works of poetry, art, music, and literature, to explore the Bible's unifying themes through "partnerships" of perspective. Each chapter offers an exercise that integrates Scripture, experience, tradition, and reason--the four sides of John Wesley's "Quadrilateral"--as the means by which to engage with the gospel and appreciate a liberal biblical theology.

Many of our current, lasting controversies in American Christianity are due, in part, to the willingness of liberals to champion reason and experience while leaving Scripture and tradition to conservatives, and vice versa. The liberal biblical theological voice, once quite strong, has fallen silent. Grounded in a solid knowledge of biblical study, Partnership in the Gospel presents a series of exercises, or angles of perspective, intended to support the rigorous consideration of biblical theological perspective that preachers, teachers, and lay leaders need. This work draws from a range of scholarly, theological, and everyday voices, and with kindred works of poetry, art, music, and literature, to explore the Bible's unifying themes through "partnerships" of perspective. Each chapter offers an exercise that integrates Scripture, experience, tradition, and reason--the four sides of John Wesley's "Quadrilateral"--as the means by which to engage with the gospel and appreciate a liberal biblical theology.

Salt City Prayers is a collection of Sunday morning prayers offered between 1985 and 1995 at Erwin United Methodist Church in Syracuse, New York. The prayers include themes such as comfort, deliverance, faith, grace, growth, meaning, presence, and restoration.

Salt City Prayers is a collection of Sunday morning prayers offered between 1985 and 1995 at Erwin United Methodist Church in Syracuse, New York. The prayers include themes such as comfort, deliverance, faith, grace, growth, meaning, presence, and restoration.

Your God is too small--way too small What if God is not a human-like personal being but the God Beyond God of the Christian mystical traditions? What if God is the ultimate reality beyond all beings, including beyond all divine beings, indeed beyond all Being? It's a mind-bending idea. Speaking of God as a human-like personal being is much easier but people who care about the deepest mystical understandings of God within our traditions need to make the effort to speak about the God Beyond God, despite the difficulties. This book makes the attempt to speak of the God Beyond God in the language of the sermon, using metaphor and potent imagery tuned to the existential intensities of human life. The God Beyond God is closer to us than our jugular veins, vividly present in every moment of our lives. These sermons are practical and moving, and they also resonate with the most rigorous theological understandings of ultimate reality. Their deconstruction of our convenient fantasies about a divine being make these sermons emotionally intense and perhaps not suitable for beginners in the journey of faith. But veteran believers can breathe deeply in the air of these meditations, relaxing into the bliss of engaging ultimate reality without delusions, without deflections, and without controlling the object of our worship. ""God Is... is a gift. Not all sermon collections read well, because sermons are an interactive event between a pastor, a people, Scripture, and the Lord. Dr. Wildman's sermon volume is that rare exception where the written word maintains the power and eloquence of what was first preached. There is a wonderfully poetic quality to his theology and biblical interpretation that encourages both reading and re-reading these messages."" --Stephen Chaplin Garner, Senior Pastor of The Congregational Church of New Canaan, CT; author, Getting in Character: The Art of First-Person Narrative Preaching ""When I heard Wildman give the first sermon of this book, in 1993, I was so moved by its fierce courage to say what most people only fear is true about God that I wept. Its original title was 'God the Destroyer.' The second sermon, then called 'God the Friend, ' was just as shaking: who would imagine friendship so weirdly deep? Wildman is a naturalist, which is explained in these sermons, though not in so many words. But he is also a biblical preacher and a rhetorical genius, a Christian preacher in the great tradition. His fervent piety inspires as it breaks common symbols and symbolizes what most Christians barely grasp. These sermons are dangerous and oh so loving."" --Robert Cummings Neville, Dean emeritus of Marsh Chapel; author, Nurture in Time and EternityandSeasons of the Christian Life Wesley J. Wildman is Professor of Philosophy, Theology, and Ethics in Boston University's School of Theology, an ordained minister in the Uniting Church of Australia, and occasional teacher of preaching. He has written numerous books presenting a radical mystical theological understanding of ultimate reality, including most recently In Our Own Image: Anthropomorphism, Apophaticism, and Ultimacy (2017) and Effing the Ineffable: Existential Mumblings at the Limits of Language (2018).

Our churches and our country long for an expression of common hope. Over the last century, venerable voices in affirmation of a common faith and a common ground have been lifted and heard in Boston, such as those of John Dewey and Howard Thurman. The Dean of Marsh Chapel, Robert Allan Hill, has preached on themes related to a common hope since 2006. Hill has lifted the theology of hope, of a common hope, at the marrow of the gospel. We cherish our forebears, who taught about a common faith and preached a common ground. In church and culture today in America, it is the prospect of a lasting, sturdy, shared hope, more purple than either blue or red, for which we hunger. The sermons about a common hope collected here were preached at the Chautauqua Institution in August of 2017. ""Dr. Hill writes in the language of a poet and has called on the reader to move from what is upwards to a new confidence and a resilient hope."" --Henry Roberts, Alabama-West Florida UMC ""Dr. Hill's gift as a preacher is in using biblical stories, along with a rich variety of cultural and literary images, to reveal what a responsible twenty-first century Christian life looks like."" --Mark Trotter, Retired United Methodist Minister, Sr. Minister First UMC San Diego ""In my part of the country, when a preacher brings the arsenal of scholarly credentials that Bob Hill does to the preaching task, then listeners habitually fold their arms and say to themselves: ""OK, preacher--Wow, me "" And yet, for all his vigilant scholarship and literary finesse, Hill makes reading this sermon collection a delight."" --David Mosser, Central Texas UMC ""In his opening Chautauqua sermon, Bob Hill claimed, with no tongue in his cheek, that the church has nothing better to do . . . nothing other to do . . . nothing more important to do . . . and nothing else to do, than preach. Audacious, to be sure. Even gutsy. But then Bob spent five days and multiple pages offering both proof and demonstration. I believe him. I do what he does. And because of Bob, I will do it boldly, proudly, and hopefully more effectively."" --William A. Ritter Robert Allan Hill is the dean of Marsh Chapel at Boston University and a professor of New Testament and pastoral theology at Boston University School of Theology. He is the author of fourteen books, including Snow Day (2003); Renewal (2009); Seeing With the Heart (2010); The Courageous Gospel (2013); Charles River (2015); and Parish Preaching (2016).

This collection of short essays, sermons, lectures, reviews, analyses, and poems is offered as a means to provoke thought, inspire imagination, and encourage conversation about the future of the church. Church renewal awaits a renewed synergy of theology, homily, and energy. Together, thought, word, and deed offer us much as we face an unforeseen future. There is much for which to be thankful, and much to be excited about as the church moves forward into the twenty-first century. A healthy future of stimulated learning, excellent leadership, and lay ministry_thought, word, and deed!_may be coming toward us.

This little collection of occasional pieces is offered as a set of discussion openers ('ice-breakers') for those who are preparing for ministry in the Northeast. The intended audience for this selection of provocations would begin with first and second year seminarians. Candidates for ministry and those considering ministry later in life might find some comfort here, too. In addition, one might hope that those who have weathered a few winters in the pulpit could find some catalytic inspiration here.