The Integrity of Biblical Narrative: Story in Theology and Proclamation

This is one of those rare books that effectively puts theology into practice. Ellingsen provides a remarkably comprehensive survey of recent approaches to biblical narrative and shows that not all approaches are compatible. Theological integrity requires that they be used discriminatingly. Then, in the greater part of the book, he explains the homiletical implications. As befits an accomplished theologian who is also a preacher, he gives apt advice and excellent examples. This is also the best book written on narrative theology and preaching. George Lindbeck, Yale University In this excellent book about biblical narrative preaching, Mark Ellingsen has brought together the expertise of the systematician, who has one foot in academics, and the experience of the parish pastor, who has the other foot in the pulpit every week. As a systematician, he criticizes and corrects the contemporary trend toward developing and preaching story sermons, offering a theology of realistic narrative sermons in their place. He also functions as a homiletician, explaining his system of preparing biblical narrative sermons, and caps the entire effort with illustrations from his own homiletical endeavors. This insightful work should provoke discussion among biblical and systematic theologians and, at the same time, prove profitable to pastors seeking to preach the gospel story in interesting, convincing, and theologically valid sermons. George M. Bass, Luther Northwestern Theological Seminary