Naming Grace: Preaching and the Sacramental Imagination by Mary Catherine HilkertIt is not a lack of training in the art of rhetoric that accounts for the ineffectiveness of preaching within the Christian churches. More significant is the lack of adequate theological foundations. While recognizing the great contribution that twentieth-century theology has made in describing the relationship betweeen God and humanity, Mary Catherine Hilkert concentrates her focus on the resources of the "sacramental imagination". This examination shifts the focus from the gap between the divine and the human and the sinfulness of humanity to the grace discovered in everyday life and the word of God entrusted to the entire community of faith. Hilkert pays particular attention to what constitutes "women's experience" of faith and engages the issue of how our positions in society shape the experience of both hearers and peachers of the word.
Sacramental Presence: An Embodied Theology of Preaching (Online) by Ruthanna B. HookeDrawing on performance studies and sacramental and liturgical theology, Ruthanna B. Hooke develops a theology of proclamation grounded in the body's experience of preaching. The author explores the claim that preaching is a sacramental event of communion with the triune God by comparing the steps involved in voice production with the fourfold shape of the Eucharist.