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Donyelle McCray, Is it a sermon, is it a sermon?, yale, divinity, african american, african american preaching, black, black preaching, art, activism, music, singing, dance, gospel, dancing, sermonic performance, mahalia jackson, harriet powers, rosie lee tomkins, thea bowman, howard thurman, toni morrison, artists, proclaimers; IBV;ABV
Is It a Sermon?

Art, Activism, and Genre Fluidity in African American Preaching

Availability:
Available for Backorder
Publisher:
Westminster John Knox Press
Publication Date:
10/7/2024
ISBN:
9780664266875
Pages:
168
Trim Size
6 x 9
Product Type:
Paper

Is It a Sermon? is an informative and daring call to blur the boundaries of the sermon genre, exploring the “shoreline” of homiletics, or the place where preaching laps up against other modes of discourse.

In this book, Donyelle McCray explores how preaching merges with prayer, song, performance, and activism—the gospel dancing in and out of the forms we create for it. Consider the sermonic performance of Isaiah walking naked and barefoot for three years, the deaconess whose morning prayer rhythmically flows into sermon, or the gospel soloist who pauses in her song to tell a story or break into a sermonette. McCray is interested in the possibilities that emerge when we play at the shoreline, and she questions what modes of preaching get overlooked due to genre classifications. She seeks to discover what we might learn from these shoreline preachers about bearing witness, enacting Scripture, and listening to life. 

While these questions could be explored generally, McCray focuses on African American preachers who play at the boundaries of the sermon genre, with attention to how genre fluidity provides a means of drawing on ancestral wisdom. Key figures like Mahalia Jackson, Harriet Powers, Rosie Lee Tomkins, Thea Bowman, Howard Thurman, and Toni Morrison are examined as artists, activists, and proclaimers. She shines a new light on their work and points out how they reform preacherly identities and refuse traditional patterns of holding authority. Ultimately, in blurring the boundaries of sermon genre, this book offers readers strategies for embracing their voices more fully within and beyond the pulpit.

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Donyelle C. McCray is Associate Professor of Homiletics at Yale University Divinity School. Her scholarship focuses on African American preaching, sermon genre, and modes of authority. She is the author of The Censored Pulpit: Julian of Norwich as Preacher.
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