Preaching outside the box

In a world beset by war, genocide, systemic discrimination, and climate catastrophe, we need good news. Donyelle McCray, who teaches homiletics at Yale Divinity School, offers the opportunity to hear and see the embodiment of good news emanating from marginalized voices—especially Black women, laypeople, artists, and activists. In her work, McCray invites us to be ever curious, critical listeners for the whispers of the Holy Spirit, to look and listen beyond the dominant boundaries of what constitutes a sermon and who can be a preacher. She critiques how restricted and exclusive the concept of the sermon has become, with strict presumptions about when and where it should occur, who should do it, and what form it should take.

Is It a Sermon? takes readers on a tour of the edges, the “shoreline of homiletics” where Christian proclamation shares porous and fluid boundaries with other expressions of good news. Exploring the sermonic proclamation of Black American artists and activists in gospel song, quilting, dance, spirituality, and literature, McCray expands readers’ awareness of the rich legacy of Black proclamation of the gospel and stokes the imagination to consider diverse and overlaid genres in expressions other than the traditional pulpit sermon.

At these edges, McCray presents five case studies of Black artists’ proclamations, highlighting sermonic dimensions and overlaps with traditional preaching. Each case study is richly descriptive as it teases out the unique homiletic themes communicated through alternative mediums and forms. The singing of Mahalia Jackson, merging gospel song with sermonic testimony, provides a fruitful site for examining the fluid relationship of song and preaching. The quilting of Rosie Lee Tompkins and Harriet Powers, who visually interpret the scripture using texture and color, proclaims a message beyond orality and aurality. Sister Thea Bowman’s dance demonstrates a shift from cognitive to kinesthetic knowledge. Howard Thurman’s spiritual writing and practice shows a proclamation that doesn’t just talk about but leads folk to experiencing God. The literature of Toni Morrison, and in particular her creation of parables, models the integration of ancestral wisdom in proclamation.