Frank A. Thomas – författare

The promise of America has always been creative potential: enterprise, industry, optimism, idealism, and hope. This promise, known since the beginning of the New World and named since the Great Depression as the “American Dream”, is what makes immigrants cry at the base of the Statue of Liberty. But there is a dark side to the American Dream, too—one that we don’t talk about much in polite company. A side characterized by the exploitation and domination of subjected people.The national climate has caused many to question the validity of the American Dream, and whether it even offers a viable vision for the nation. There are few greater questions to ask. Our collective future depends on a common vision. If the American Dream is dead, then what happens next?This book evaluates the American Dream, establishes its roots, gives reasons for its decline, and offers solutions to reclaim the promise of the American Dream that is more aligned with Jesus’ vision of the kingdom of God and Martin Luther King Jr’ s vision of the “Beloved Community”. Our challenge is to develop a redesigned American Dream, a sustainable future for all, free from exploitation and domination of subjected people.

The Introduction to African American Preaching is an important,groundbreaking book. This book acknowledges African American preachingas an academic discipline, and invites all students and preachers into ascholarly, dynamic, and useful exploration of the topic.AuthorFrank Thomas opens with a “bus tour” study of African Americanpreaching. He shows how African American preaching has gradually movedfrom an almost exclusively oral to an oral/written tradition. Readerswill gain insight into the history of the study of the African Americanpreaching tradition, and catch the author’s enthusiasm for it.NextThomas traces the relationship between homiletics and rhetoric inWestern preaching, demonstrating how African American preaching isinherently theological and rhetorical.He then explores thequestion, “what is black preaching?” Thomas introduces the reader tomethods of “close reading” and “ideological criticism.” And thendemonstrates how to use these methods, using a sermon by Gardner CalvinTaylor as his example.The next chapter considers the question, “what is excellence in black preaching?”Thenext chapter seeks to create bridges and dialogue within the field ofhomiletics, and in particular, the Euro-American homiletic tradition.The goal of this chapter is to clearly demonstrate connections betweenthe African American preaching tradition and the field of homiletics.Thomasnext turns to questions about the relevancy of the church to theMillennial generation. Specifically, how will the African Americanchurch remain relevant to this generation, which is so deeply concernedwith social justice?

Learn to use four characteristics of "preaching with moral imagination" to proclaim freedom for all. The author describes the four characteristics using examples like Robert F. Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,Prathia Hall, and the Moral Monday Movement, along with musicians and other artists of today. Moral imagination helps the hearer to see what they cannot see, to hear what they cannot hear--to inhabit the lives of others, so that they can embody Christ and true freedom for those others. This book equips and empowers preachers to transcend their basic skills and techniques, so that their proclamation of the Word causes actual turnaround in the hearts and lives of their hearers, and in their communities."Frank Thomas has written apassionate summons: amid the current destructive chaos of our societythere is an urgent need for moral imagination. Such imagination is theantithesis of “diabolic” and “idolatrous” imagination that is all to thefore in our public discourse and practice. Thomas fleshes out “moralimagination” with close reflection on the practice of Robert F. Kennedyand Martin Luther King. Before he finishes Thomas shows how the urgencyof “moral imagination” belongs peculiarly to the work of the preacher.This book is a welcome call for gospel-grounded courage and truth aboutthe neighbor issued in a way that refuses the self-serving fakery thatdominates our public life." --Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary"Timely and prophetic, How to Preach a Dangerous Sermonpresents a homiletic essential for our churches today. Thomas insiststhat it is up to the preacher to recapture and reclaim the moralimagination of our nation so that the Gospel’s message of freedom istrue for all people. With attention to specific figures whose witnessmodels the qualities and characteristics of moral imagination, Thomasinspires the preacher toward powerful proclamation that both challengesand critiques any speech that subjugates or subordinates. How to Preach a Dangerous Sermonis must read for preachers to recover and reimagine the leadership roleof the church for the sake of justice for all." --Karoline M. Lewis,Associate Professor of Biblical Preaching and the Marbury E. AndersonChair of Biblical Preaching, Luther Seminary; author of She: Five Keys to Unlock the Power of Women in Ministry."In this lucid and compelling book, Frank Thomas plumbs the depths ofAmerican moral rhetoric for insights that will help preachers. How to Preach a Dangerous Sermonprovides new and dramatic ways in which the moral imagination in ademocratic society can be nurtured by visionary, empathic, wise, andartistic preachers."--John S. McClure, Charles G. Finney Professor of Preaching and Worship, Vanderbilt Divinity School"Warning: Preachers, if you are comfortable with the status quo ofwhite privilege, patriarchy, hetero-normativity, and classism, do notread this book. If you are comfortable with sermon series that reducethe gospel to self-help acronyms, don’t read this book. But if you havethe courage to look honestly at our landscape and bring the moralimagination of the Christian tradition to bear on it, open these pagesand your sermons may never be the same again. But then again neitherwill the church--or the world--be the same anymore, if enough of usfollow Thomas’s advice." --O. Wesley Allen, Jr., Lois Craddock PerkinsProfessor of Homiletics, Perkins School of Theology, Southern MethodistUniversity

Preachers increasingly see the need for to deliver sermons that are "dangerous" in a variety of ways, the way they challenge hearers'' comfort levels and challenge established powers and hierachies. Thomas helps readers understand those dangers—especially the forces of power and hierarchy that are so intrinsic in our everyday lives and in society as a whole. He teaches how to anticipate and navigate those forces, to open opportunities for dangerous preaching, and to mitigate negative impact on congregants, the preacher, and the preacher-congregation relationships. Surviving a Dangerous Sermon is a logical follow-up to Thomas''s previous book, How to Preach a Dangerous Sermon.It equips preachers to say what must be said, in a way that it is heard, so that the sermon has a chance to do its work on human hearts, without negative consequences.