Evangelical Eloquence (RL Dabney)

Description

Subtitle: A Course of Lectures on Preaching

In these days of the soundbite and the autocue, public speaking is a declining art-form, though it is not extinct and still has its own weight and force. In New Testament times, unlike today, rhetoric was a highly regarded skill and works were written about it which are still read. Dabney quotes liberally from these, but does not always agree with them. he knew that gospel preaching was not to be ‘with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect’. ‘Evangelical eloquence’, for Dabney, was unique. It consisted in ‘the soul’s virtuous energy exerted through speech’ which applied ‘the authority of God to the conscience’ and formed ‘the image of Christ upon the souls of men’.

Table of Contents

1. Introductory
2. The Preacher’s Commission
3. Distribution of Subjects
4. The Same Topics Continued
5. The Text
6. The Text (Continued)
7. Cardinal Requisites of the Sermon
8. Cardinal Requisites of the Sermon (Continued)
9. Constituent Members of the Sermon
10. Constituent Members of the Sermon (Continued) – Explication and Proposition
11. Constituent Members of the Discourse (Continued) – Argument and Conclusion
12. Sources of Argument
13. Rules of Argument
14. Rules of Argument (Continued)
15. Division of the Argument
16. Persuasion
17. Persuasion (Continued)
18. Preacher’s Character with Hearers
19. Style
20. Style (Continued)
21. Action
22. Action (Continued)
23. Modes of Preparation
24. Public Prayer

Author

R.L.  Dabney (1820-1898) served as pastor of a Presbyterian congregation at Tinkling Springs, Virginia before becoming Professor, first of Church History, then of Theology, at Union Theological Seminary. Later he taught theology at Austin Seminary, Texas, which he helped to found. His Discussions and Lectures in Systematic Theology are published by the Banner of Truth Trust.