Ethical Approaches to Preaching

Different ethical situations require different homiletical responses.

John McClure organizes recent literature on ethics and preaching into four ethical approaches.

Does your situation require public moral leadership?

Then a communicative ethic is best. Does your situation require the development of countercultural moral character?

Then a witness ethic is best. Does your situation require ethical consciousness-raising and organizing for social justice?

Then a liberationist ethic is best. Does your situation require genuine moral conversation and the discernment of shared commitments in spite of our differences?

Then a hospitality ethic is best. Each ethical approach is briefly and carefully explored, correlated with appropriate contexts and situations, and demonstrated with model sermons.

The result is a useful handbook for quickly discerning what ethical approach is needed, how to preach that approach, and what to expect as a result.