In A Captive Voice, David Buttrick encourages pastors to look afresh at the Bible, church, culture, and Christian identity in order to answer the question of how to preach. Buttrick examines the renewal of ecclesiology in the mid-twentieth century, a time when the high-hung pulpits were scaled down as preaching came to be seen as a conversation among friends in Christ. While this was a positive development, Buttrick argues that preaching must now become the articulation of our common faith, a speaking from the Spirit we all possess.

The image of the kingdom of God has all but disappeared in preaching today. Here, David Buttrick critiques the state of the church, society, and preaching today and discusses Old and New Testament understandings of the rule of God, the presence of the kingdom, and the tensions between kingdom and church.

This book is not another volume attempting to persuade the reader of the rights of gays and lesbians in society and in the church. Instead it assumes the reader is a minister or student of ministry who already has a passion for this issue and is looking for better strategies to speak out of this passion in the pulpit. Too often progressive preachers avoid speaking about issues related to sexual orientation out of fear of rejection from the congregation, or address them in ways that unintentionally alienates either gay or straight hearers. Askew and Allen offer preachers tools for recognizing...