I'm RevMo Crystal Hardin. Wife. Mother. Recovering Attorney. Photographer. Episcopal Priest. Writer. Preacher.
I often don’t know what I believe until I’ve written or preached it, and the preaching craft is one of my greatest joys. In an effort to refine that craft, I post sermons and musings here for public consumption.
A collection of provocative, inspiring, and thoughtful essays about the place of politics in the pulpit.
This book is the first collection of essays to explore the question: is there room for politics from the pulpit? In response to an increasingly polarized society, preachers grapple with the call to witness a unifying Truth in a world where truth appears subjective. While many congregations respond positively to social and political themes in sermons, others do not. Conservative Episcopalians may feel uncomfortable with political-themed preaching, while liberal Episcopalians demand a political message from the pulpit. What is a preacher to do when the Episcopal Church is no more immune to the temptation of polarization than the secular world?
Contributors to this volume serve in a variety of contexts and bring with them their own distinct styles and visions. Anyone with an interest in the practical implications addressing the current political climate from the pulpit will find these essays provocative, inspiring, and thoughtful.
Contributors: Samuel G. Candler, Sarah T. Condon, Alex Dyer, Crystal J. Hardin, Ruthanna Hooke, Mark Jefferson, Russell J. Levenson Jr., Ian Markham, Phoebe Roaf, Stephanie Spellers, and Samuel Wells.
Available at Church Publishing and Amazon.
My chapter in this volume, “Addressing Polarization and Apathy Through Sacramental Preaching,” explores the power of the pulpit in the face of two phenomena in our post-Christian landscape: the passions of the polarized and the indifference of the religiously apathetic.
What is your theology of preaching? What happens in the preaching act? What is the point of preaching anyhow? What is the relationship of preaching to the liturgy? To the sacraments? Any who would take on the vocation of preacher should understand what they are getting themselves into –and not just the week in and week out writing of sermons, but the call and commission to preach the word of God. Preachers should be well-rooted in a theology of preaching that guides, nourishes, challenges, and equips, one that stands in firm, purposeful relationship with the sacraments. If we treat preaching as little more than weekly meditations where we share some personal thoughts, some biblical suggestions for a life well-lived, a funny story or two, or some commentary on secular happenings coupled with a few things Jesus would most certainly do, then why bother? If preaching lacks power and the preacher lacks conviction, what’s the point? Flannery O’Connor once wrote about the Eucharist, “If it’s a symbol, to hell with it,” and I’d extend that sentiment to preaching. If nothing is at stake in the act of preaching other than, perhaps, our own egos, to hell with it.
Available at Wipf and Stock and Amazon.