Whether it take the form of the formal prose of the Puritans, the clear, plain-spoken wisdom of the Quakers, or the improvisational style of African American folk preaching, the sermon is one of America's most unique types of literature. While this collection should never be considered easy reading, its high quality and profundity more than compensate for its challenges. In fact, this collection (spanning the 17th through the 20th centuries) is packed with literary and historical gems. Absalom Jones, an African Episcopal minister, preaches a heart-wrenching sermon that sings the praises of the end of the slave trade in 1808. Ralph Waldo Emerson delivers "The Lord's Supper Sermon," and, of course, there's Martin Luther King's most famous sermon, "I've Been to the Mountaintop."

Newsweek magazine called this "the most important book-publishing project in the nation's history." This may be an exaggeration; nonetheless the book is certainly a worthy project, if only for its recognition of the sermon as a legitimate and stirring genre of American literature. --Gail Hudson


From Library Journal
Library of Americas latest tome rounds up in chronological order 58 sermons, from Robert Cushmans address to the colony of Plimmoth in New England in 1621 to Kings 1968 Ive been to the mountaintop speech. This also includes biographical notes and notes on the texts.Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Card catalog description
The sermon is the first and most enduring genre of American literature. The essential medium of the Puritan settlements, it continued in succeeding centuries to play a vital role - as public ritual, occasion for passion and reflection, and, not least, popular entertainment. The 58 sermons collected in this volume display the form's eloquence, intellectual rigor, and spiritual fervor. Ranging from the first New England settlements to mass-media evangelism and the civil rights movement in the 1960s, these texts reclaim a neglected aspect of American literature.

FROM OUR EDITORS

A rousing collection, these 58 sermons gathered from three centuries of American history constitute an invaluable resource for anyone interested in the development of American religious thought.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The sermon is the first and most enduring genre of American literature. The essential medium of the Puritan settlements, it continued in succeeding centuries to play a vital role - as public ritual, occasion for passion and reflection, and, not least, popular entertainment. The 58 sermons collected in this volume display the form's eloquence, intellectual rigor, and spiritual fervor. Ranging from the first New England settlements to mass-media evangelism and the civil rights movement in the 1960s, these texts reclaim a neglected aspect of American literature.

FROM THE CRITICS

Ron Charles

...[T]his volumeNo. 108is another invaluable addition to the country's most comprehensive literary series. —The Christian Science Monitor

New York Times Book Review

To peruse this work is to become reacquainted with the literary eloquence of our distant and recent past and to observe what has happened to rhetoric itself over the centuries.

NY Times Book Review

To peruse this work is to become reacquainted with the literary eloquence of our distant and recent past and to observe what has happened to rhetoric itself over the centuries.

Library Journal

Library of Americas latest tome rounds up in chronological order 58 sermons, from Robert Cushmans address to the colony of Plimmoth in New England in 1621 to Kings 1968 Ive been to the mountaintop speech. This also includes biographical notes and notes on the texts.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

Peter J. Gomes