Deeper Waters: Sermons for a New Vision

Deeper Waters is a sermon collection--but also a manifesto. Its sermons sound forth a call for Christian preaching that is evangelical and emancipatory: unashamed of the good news about Christs death and resurrection and resolute in resistance to white supremacy male domination and redemptive violence. The author pastor Nibs Stroupe is a white son of the segregated South nurtured in its twin traditions of anti-black white racism and Christian faith. But through the courageous witness of black Americans engaged in the Civil Rights movement Stroupe experienced conversion to a new theological vision. Gods loving claim on humanity in Jesus Christ abolishes oppressive idols and breaks down dividing barriers. This conviction propelled Nibs into a lifelong ministry of gospel proclamation and antiracist struggle. For thirty-four years Stroupe pastored at Oakhurst Presbyterian Church a multiracial congregation in metropolitan Atlanta. The sermons of this collection present the mature fruit of that ministry and they offer a gift and example to the next generation of preachers and workers summoned as witnesses of Jesus Christ to the American context. Jesus-centered biblically learned and dead-set against white supremacy--even as he retains awareness of his complicity with it--Nibs Stroupe is one of the most important models for preaching in our time. --Ted A. Smith Candler School of Theology Emory University Nibs Stroupe grew up in the Mississippi River Delta in Arkansas. He retired in 2017 after thirty-four years as pastor of Oakhurst Presbyterian Church a church nationally known for its leadership in multicultural ministry. He is the author of three books including the award-winning While We Run This Race. In 2007 he was inducted into the Martin Luther King Jr. Board of Preachers at Morehouse College in Atlanta. Collin Cornell is a PhD candidate in Hebrew Bible/Old Testament at Emory University. In addition to racial justice and preaching his interests include theological interpretation of Scripture and the doctrine of God.