Preaching and Music

“Preachers have always known the deep connections between preaching and music, but for Williams, this partnership results in reciprocal homiletical possibilities of symphonic heights. That music can lighten the preacher’s load by sharing in the proclamation of the good news of God is just the pastoral and spiritual promise every preacher needs to hear.”

—Karoline M. Lewis, Marbury E. Anderson Chair in Biblical Preaching, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota

“Preachers with musical training have long intuited the resonance between these two identities, but it is rare to find a book that takes both callings seriously. In Preaching and Music, Catherine Williams offers a unique perspective on the multiple connections between preaching and music, inviting preachers and musicians to fully embrace each other as partners in the work of proclamation. This is a joyful book, reminding us of all the ways word and song belong together.”

—Angela Dienhart Hancock, Howard C. Scharfe Associate Professor of Homiletics, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary

“In this volume Williams draws upon established homiletical and liturgical voices, but then pulls these to the margins where they can be put into conversation with traditions that have been largely ignored or even disparaged, particularly those of Black and Pentecostal churches. This is not a zero-sum game. Williams demonstrates that when we dismantle the walls that divide our traditions and our roles as preachers and musicians, all can better flourish.”

—Martin Tel, C. F. Seabrook Director of Music, Princeton Theological Seminary

“Catherine Williams takes the global church into the practice rooms of spoken and sung word with a first of its kind homiletics textbook and demonstrates how ‘singing can preach and preaching can sing.’ With glossary and index, she introduces her integrative musico-homiletical method and also invites readers into the fascinating soundscape of African American preaching. Without romanticized intent, she shows how Africana music and homiletical practices transcend the theoretical codes and categories developed by Europeans, underscoring how cultural experiences involving music and proclamation reflect the Holy Spirit’s indifference to binaries which suggest that life is divisible in God’s world. Preaching and Music strikes the right chord and hits the right note!”

—Kenyatta R. Gilbert, dean and professor of homiletics, Howard University School of Divinity

“In this wise and inspiring book, Williams—herself a pastor-preacher, as well as preaching professor and trained musicologist—invites preachers and church musicians to be creative allies, planning every worship service as a deliberate interweaving of sermon and song, guided by a clearly focused message. Chapter by chapter, we learn accessible strategies for creating a synergistic relationship between music and spoken word, enlisting preacher and worshipers as co-proclaimers of gospel news. Especially rich is Williams’s exploration of Africana worship traditions, where proclamation arises amid a soundscape of Spirit-energized dialogue between pulpit and pew. This is a book congregations must gift to each of their preachers, lay worship leaders, and musicians.”

—Sally A. Brown, Elizabeth M. Engle Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary