Philip Arthur Bence PhD Thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText

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Stewart told ministers to preach the Bible because it
held the answers to the needs of men. Tillich
recommended a preaching of the Gospel (tradition) that
would answer the questions of the contemporary world.
Once again, one of the preacher-theologians not
selected frequently by the surveyed lecturers offered a
perspective which, perhaps, underlies that offered by the
other four.
Harry Emerson Fosdick's 'project' method' began with
his people, the unique collection of individuals that
listened to him preach week by week. Each week, he took
a critical issue pressing on those people to Scripture.
From that source (and others as well), he proposed
solutions to his people's needs.
Fosdick described the ideal sermon in terms of two
simple components: its "object" and "subject." In the
preparation of such a sermon, the selection of the object
always precedes the choice of subject.
I mean not simply some over-all aim--such as
the presentation of Christian truth and the
persuasion of men to accept it--which obviously
should be all preaching's purpose, but for each
sermon a specific intent. . . . I, for one,
cannot start a sermon until I clearly see what
I propose to get done on Sunday morning.9'5
But, of course, in order to accomplish its purpose,
the sermon must offer appropriate content. Fosdick goes
on:
To be sure, the object of a sermon always
involves a subject. Whatever the aim may be,
some truth is relevant to its acomplishment,
but the truth, when presented in any given
sermon, should be no abstraction, but an