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Book Cover for: Sermon Listening: A New Approach Based on Congregational Studies and Rhetoric, Enoh Seba

Sermon Listening: A New Approach Based on Congregational Studies and Rhetoric

Enoh Seba

Preaching is an integral part of every church service, and its purpose has always been to edify, encourage, and to emphasize the positive effects of coming together as a people of God. Yet there remains an inconsistency between the intended goals of preaching and the subjective perception of the listeners. In this homiletical study, Dr. Enoh Seba provides fresh insight into the "turn to the listener" model and offers a theologically sustainable warrant mandate for the transformation of the preaching practice through a stronger involvement of the congregation. While grounding the research in the experience of Croatian Baptists, Dr. Seba highlights practical suggestions for both listeners and preachers that are transferrable across contexts. This important work reveals that preaching can and should be transformed into a truly congregational practice that will affirmatively affect the dynamics of ecclesial life. This book will spark conversations and induce small-scale changes on a variety of levels while bridging the gap between preachers and their listeners.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Langham Academic
  • Publish Date: Jun 30th, 2021
  • Pages: 300
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 9.00in - 6.00in - 0.63in - 0.89lb
  • EAN: 9781839732218
  • Categories: Christian Ministry - PreachingChristian Living - Leadership & MentoringChristianity - Baptist

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About the Author

Seba, Enoh: - ENOH SEBA earned his PhD from Spurgeon's College, London, UK. He is the Secretary and a lecturer at the Center for Protestant Theology Matthias Flacius Illyricus (University of Zagreb), Croatia. Dr Seba has previously served as the General Secretary for the Student Evangelical Movement in Croatia.

Praise for this book

Enoh Seba offers a rich and multi-faceted study in homiletics. He mines classical traditions of rhetoric and draws them into a rich dialogue with his own context, while also making a contribution to the fertile ground of "baptistic" theology within the contemporary academy. A unique and valuable contribution to contemporary homiletics literature.

Doug Gay, PhD

Principal of Trinity College, Lecturer in Practical Theology, University of Glasgow, UK


In this groundbreaking study, Enoh Seba describes and reflects on a unique research project. This book will help congregations, pastors, denominational leaders and theologians anywhere in the world take more seriously the importance of respecting those who listen to sermons, and develop practices of preaching and hearing which truly build up the people of God on the foundation of his word.

Stephen I. Wright, PhD

Vice Principal and Academic Director, Spurgeon's College, London, UK


In this engaging exploration of preaching in Croatia, Dr. Seba provides preachers with ways to make listeners an important and enduring part of the preaching conversation.

Lucy Lind Hogan, PhD

Hugh Latimer Elderdice Professor of Preaching, Emerita, Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington, DC, USA


Enoh Šeba provides one of the finest intellectual histories of the "turn to the listener" in recent homiletics, and an overview of preaching practices and homiletical scholarship among Croatian Baptists. He takes the reader on a journey into the ways that sermon listeners are processing the sermons they hear as he summarizes the results of his empirical and ethnographic study of sermon-listening among Croatian Baptists. The results are remarkably insightful and consistently helpful.

John S. McClure, PhD

Charles G. Finney Professor of Preaching and Worship,

Vanderbilt Divinity School, Nashville, Tennessee, USA


Drawing on a wide knowledge of the fields of homiletics, rhetoric, congregational studies and practical theology, this book will help congregations, pastors, denominational leaders and theologians anywhere in the world take more seriously the importance of respecting those who listen to sermons, and develop practices of preaching and hearing which truly build up the people of God on the foundation of his word.

Stephen I. Wright, PhD

Vice Principal and Academic Director,

Spurgeon's College, London, UK


With this book on Croatian Baptist preaching, Enoh Seba adds a rich homiletical study to the growing number of empirical studies in the field. His choice to combine rhetoric and congregational studies builds upon existing research and emphasizes the significance of studying preaching in relation to its local context.

Theo Pleizier, PhD

Assistant Professor of Practical Theology,

Protestant Theological University, Groningen, Netherlands