No Longer Bound: A Theology of Reading and Preaching

No Longer Bound is about the intersection of reading comprehension and interpretation that leads to the development of a powerful and transformative sermon. Reading facilitates the interpretive process which is the essence of any sermon. The sermon is an interpretation of an interpretation and as such presents itself as a new gospel message. The ability to write and preach a sermon is an exercise in freedom. The book is grounded in a narrative theological form that begins with the authors experience and filters that experience through the lens of hermeneutic philosophy and theology. Reading and preaching constitute the thread that runs throughout the book. The book suggests that the sermon is the philosophic theology of Black practical religion inasmuch as the Black church is central to religion and culture. This is a fresh and new understanding of homiletics philosophical theology and interpretation theory that is intended to produce better preachers and more powerful and life-changing sermons by all who endeavor to preach. James Henry Harris is the only preacher and professor I know who can so easily blend together in one book the plaintive messages of American slave songs of the nineteenth century the rigorous inquiry of European philosophy of the twentieth century and the challenges confronting black preachers in the twenty-first century. . . . All preachers would do well to read this challenging and insightful book and apply its lessons to their pulpit ministry! --Marvin A. McMickle President and Professor of Church Leadership Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School So much more than a great book on the art of the sermon--and it is that!--James Henry Harris has given us a fully realized theology of dialogue and liberation. In astonishingly deft and astute ways he juxtaposes his own autobiography with commentaries on philosophical theology literature postmodern society and life in diverse African American communities. A fine critical work of narrative art in its own right No Longer Bound guides us--issue by issue question by question--into the passion of preaching as an act of love. --Larry D. Bouchard Professor of Religious Studies University of Virginia Here is a compelling multi-leveled account of preaching in the Black church integrating biography Scripture study homiletics philosophy and theology. Harris tells the story of his dual African American legacies: of slavery and racism on one side and redemptive preaching on the other. He gleans a theology of preaching from his years as a professor of homiletics as a pulpit preacher and as an activist for civil rights and religious freedom. . . . It is an intellectually spicy and soulful account of how preaching the word can liberate the spirit. --Peter W. Ochs Professor of Modern Judaic Studies University of Virginia This is a deeply personal book. James Henry Harris weaves threads from his rich life of ministry and learning all lived out against the backdrop of a racially charged land into a beautiful tapestry of faithful and courageous preaching. Harris manages to bring a host of strong thinkers helpfully into the conversation--Cone and Ricoeur Derrida and Dubois and many others--without ever losing the clear and confident sound of his own voice. --Thomas G. Long Professor of Preaching Candler School of Theology Emory University James Henry Harris is Professor and Chair of Preaching and Pastoral Theology at Virginia Union University and Senior Minister at the Second Baptist Church both in Richmond Virginia. He is the author of The Word Made Plain (2004) and Preaching Liberation (1996). He is a recipient of the Henry Luce III Fellowship in Theology and a past president of the Academy of Homiletics.