Preaching the Inward Light

A lively analysis of Quaker homiletics. Both historians and students of rhetoric and preaching will find here many helpful insights.

~John S. McClure, Charles G. Finney Professor of Homiletics, The Divinity School, Vanderbilt University

More than religious history, Michael P. Graves has penned a multifaceted historical, theoretical, and textual analysis of impromptu speech that will be of great interest to communication and rhetorical scholars.... Through his careful scholarship and elegant prose, we catch a glimpse of the path these Friends followed, the meaning they built, the communities they formed, and the Light that illuminated their way.

~Jonathan J. Edwards, Rhetoric & Public Affairs

Preaching the Inward Light is an excellent resource not only for students of religious rhetoric, preaching, and history, but also for persons who would encounter a radically different approach to discerning God’s living word amid the community of faith.

~Homiletic

Writing in a clear, accessible style, Mike Graves breaks new ground in this discussion of late seventeenth-century Quaker impromptu preaching. Situating his analysis of particular sermons within the context of Quaker rhetorical and homiletical theory of the time, Graves adds a significant new chapter to both rhetorical and homiletical theory. Furthermore, Graves discerns features in early Quaker preaching that have striking pertinence for preaching today—for example, the way key metaphors lend these sermons both rhetorical and theological coherence. With today’s global resurgence of spontaneous, pneumatologically-driven modes of preaching, prompting both scholars and students of preaching to ask new questions, this book could hardly be more timely. Graves’ look backward may provide just the sort of exploratory map we need to move forward.

~Sally A. Brown, Elizabeth M. Engle Associate Professor of Preaching and Worship, Princeton Theological Seminary