Preaching the Heart of God

Many books have been published on preaching. What is distinctive about this one? Its sub-title tells us: "The Place of Pathos in Preaching". "Pathos" is commonly confused with "bathos" - the latter being something banal - or the mundane masquerading as something marvellous, "Pathos", on the other hand, relates to the emotions - to feelings such as sorrow or sympathy. It used appropriately, it turns ears into eyes, and hearers into doers. Given that "pathos" permeates in one way or another more or less every page of this book, it is essential from the outset to understand the distinction. Chapter One sets the tone by referring to Aristotle's three-part division of effective speaking: ethos, logos and pathos. "Ethos" - is the speaker's credibility or integrity; logs - is the message's content (for Christians - Scripture); and "Pathos" - the speaker's emotions. The author takes it as read that it is essential for preachers to have a high regard of Scripture as "God's inerrant and infallible word"; but this is insufficient without the presence of "pathos" - that is, of emotion, passion and persuasion. Later, in developing this theme, he recounts the tale of the effect that a largely unknown English Methodist preacher, called Henry Moorhouse, had upon Dwight L Moody. The latter reluctantly agreed that Moorhouse should preach for a week whilst he was away.

Every night Henry Moorhouse used the same text: John 3:16. On his return, Moody heard him preach; and it had such a profound effect upon him that he had "more power with God and men since then", because he put into practice the type of preaching that could melt the hardest of hearts. Maybe the author's sub-title "Hard truths with melting words" sums up the ideal succinctly. This is just a fragment of what is to be gained from this book - in sort, the vital use of the emotions without emotionalism; but there is something else that is worth mentioning. Each chapter opens with a three-part arrowed summary of its content. For instance, Chapter 2 "The place of Emotion" says; "Avoiding boring preaching". This is very helpful.
Good books are not only readable, but they also challenge the reader. This one scores well on both counts. Indeed, I would heartily endorse Stuart Olyott's commendation on the back cover: "Every preacher who reads this book will wish that he had read it sooner..."