Communicating the Faith Indirectly: Selected Sermons Addresses and Prayers: 3 (Paul L. Holmer Papers)

Volume 3 The Paul L. Holmer Papers: Selected Sermons Addresses and Prayers In his teaching and his writing Paul L. Holmer (1916-2004) Professor of Philosophy at the University of Minnesota (1946-1960) and Noah Porter Professor of Philosophical Theology at Yale Divinity School (1960-1987) not only made important contributions to recent American theology but was also much in demand as a public speaker and preacher. Following his death the Holmer family in 2005 donated his papers to the Yale Divinity School Library. In this the third volume of The Paul L. Holmer Papers: Communicating the Faith Indirectly the reader will see Holmers deep concern with the problems and possibilities of the sermon liturgy ministry and spirituality. Inspired by Soren Kierkegaards reflections on indirect communication and by Ludwig Wittgenstein Holmer not only reveals his strenuous reflection on the sermon but also gives concrete examples of his own efforts to communicate enabling his hearers and readers to make sense of their lives. In the first part of this volume Holmer reflects upon Kierkegaards indirect communication a communication not of knowledge but of human capacity. In other pieces Holmer turns to liturgy ministry and spirituality. In the second part of this volume the reader sees Holmers own challenging uncompromising practice of religious and Christian communication in a selection of his sermons addresses and prayers. For anyone concerned with sermons liturgy spirituality and the challenges of ministry Holmers essays and addresses will prove indispensable. This is the third volume of The Paul L. Holmer Papers which includes also volume 1 On Kierkegaard and the Truth and volume 2 Thinking the Faith with Passion: Selected Essays. This volume is such a gift to those of us who loved Paul Holmer and were shaped by his thought. It is a thrill to hear his distinctive voice again in these pages. This book may be an even greater gift to those who have never read or heard Holmer. Now you will get to see what all the fuss is about. Be forewarned however: do not open this book casually. You might be forever changed as well. --Martin B. Copenhaver Wellesley Congregational Church Paul Holmer took up Kierkegaards emphasis on the decisiveness of the how over the what inviting the indirection so rightly registered in the books title. A central expression of how is insistence upon compassion as chaperone guardian and custodian of learning. --David Cain University of Mary Washington Holmer is both philosopher and theologian providing sage advice for anyone who loves the church. The sermons most of which are appropriately based on some letter of St. Paul advise the church on a variety of pitfalls on the path of the Christian life urging steadfastness against worldliness reminding us of the power of the consciousness of immortality and making clear the place of thought in the Christian life. --Ronald E. Hustwit Sr. The College of Wooster David J. Gouwens is Professor of Theology at Brite Divinity School. He is the author of Kierkegaards Dialectic of the Imagination (1989) and Kierkegaard as Religious Thinker (1996). Lee C. Barrett is Stager Professor of Theology at Lancaster Theological Seminary. He is the author of The Heidelberg Catechism (2007) Foundations of Modern Theology: Kierkegaard (2009) and co-editor of Kierkegaard and the Bible (2010).