The New Measures

Ted A. Smith is Assistant Professor of Ethics and Preaching as well as the director of the Program in Theology and Practice at the Vanderbilt University Divinity School He is co-author, along with Thomas G. Long, of an upcoming book on the history of preaching in the United States.

Review of the hardback: 'Democracy can be interpreted by abstract theories but it is lived and practiced by people in specific times and places. Ted Smith's The New Measures is a thought-provoking and fascinating analysis of specific practices of the intersection of American democracy and Christianity. Smith's text joins recent debates in theology and ethics about democracy but adds a historical depth and theoretical specificity that should change the nature as well as the purpose of just debates. And Smith's own theological ability to narrate our historical practices through an eschatological lens allows us to avoid the tired and unsatisfying progress and decline theories of both democracy and Christianity. Ted retrieves the venerable tradition of H. Richard Niebuhr, Reinhold Niebuhr and W. E. B. Dubois in combing history, theology and ethics to make democracy and Christianity still a task before us.' Rebecca Chopp, Professor of Philosophy and Religion, President, Colgate University

• The Flyer: a preface for theologians, ethicists, historians, and homileticians; The Fugleman: a brief drill in methodology; 1. Some measures are plainly necessary; 2. You must have something new; 3. Sinners bound to change their own hearts; 4. Whosoever will; 5. The measure of self.