Scholars@Duke
Richard Lischer

Richard Lischer

James T. and Alice Mead Cleland Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Divinity School
Divinity School
rlischer@div.duke.edu
Duke Box 90967, Durham, NC 27708-0967
Duke Divinity School, 3 Chapel Hill Drive, Durham, NC 27708

Selected Publications

Review: Biography opens new windows into the life of MLK

Book Review America Magazine · August 17, 2023 Link to item Cite

The White church still owes “Letter from Birmingham Jail” an answer

Journal Article Christian century (Chicago, Ill. : 1902) · April 5, 2023 Link to item Cite

Our Hearts Are Restless: The Art of Spiritual Memoir

Book · January 1, 2022 The personal narrative, be it autobiography or memoir, tells what it is to live and die in the world. Spiritual memoir adds two further dimensions. First, belief or unbelief in God is not incidental to the narrative, but crucial. The narrator and other cha ... Full text Cite

Preaching Holy Week in the middle of a pandemic—again

Journal Article Christian century (Chicago, Ill. : 1902) · March 24, 2021 Link to item Cite

The Righteousness of the Prude and the Righteousness of the Lover

Journal Article Christian century (Chicago, Ill. : 1902) · March 10, 2021 Link to item Cite

Just Tell the Truth: A Call to Faith, Hope, and Courage

Book · February 23, 2021 "A collection of biblically and theologically rooted sermons about living the Christian life with conviction"-- ... Cite

Waiting for Good News:  Holy Saturday in a Time of Plague

Journal Article Christian century (Chicago, Ill. : 1902) · April 8, 2020 Cite

The Preacher King: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Word that Moved America, Updated Edition

Book · January 1, 2020 This book investigates Martin Luther King, Jr.'s religious development from a precocious "preacher’s kid" in segregated Atlanta to the most influential American preacher and orator of the twentieth century. To give an intimate portrait, the book draws almo ... Full text Cite

Imagining a sermon

Chapter · September 8, 2017 Full text Cite

Preaching Gospel Essays in Honor of Richard Lischer

Book · 2016 After nearly four decades of teaching, Richard Lischer has sent legions of preachers across the world to preach gospel. This volume pays tribute to his faith-filled life of preaching and teaching. ... Cite

Reading the Parables Interpretation: Resources for the Use of Scripture in the Church

Book · September 12, 2014 Parables make up one-third of Jesus' speech in the New Testament. In this volume, Richard Lischer provides an expert guide to these parables and proposes an important distinction between reading and interpreting the parables. ... Cite

Stations of the heart : parting with a son: parting with a son

Book · 2013 Describes the author's wrenching loss of his son to melanoma, a tragedy also marked by the imminent birth of another child and the spiritual lessons imparted by the young man throughout the end of his life. ... Link to item Cite

A book's life

Journal Article The Christian Century · 2013 The used books I order from Amazon for $.01 plus shipping often come with personal endearments and messages of encouragement written on the title page, as well as sage and not-so-sage comments scrawled in the margins, all of which now belong to me. At the ... Link to item Cite

Stripped bare: Holy Week and the art of losing

Journal Article Christian Century · March 21, 2012 Link to item Cite

Stripped bare

Journal Article The Christian Century · 2012 First the body is reverently undressed, and any wounds on it are carefully cleansed. According to the witness of the prison doctor, before he went to the gallows Bonhoeffer removed his prison clothes and knelt in prayer. [...] they also bypass the profound ... Link to item Cite

The Preacher King: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Word that Moved America

Book · October 3, 2011 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a spellbinding orator and it is evident that he honed these skills in the pulpit in his capacity as a Baptist minister. This book is a full-scale study of King as a preacher and draws on tape-recordings and transcriptions of ... Full text Cite

King's statue a national challenge

Other The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Atlanta, GA) · 2011 Link to item Cite

Above all, a Christian witness

Other News & Observer · 2008 If an outside observer were to ask, "Which is the real [Martin Luther King Jr.]? Is it the body on the balcony, or the rising spirit of a great-souled leader?" today the church of God responds, "It is the spirit rising. The spirit of King endures not only ... Link to item Cite

Stick with the story: the preaching task

Journal Article Christian Century · July 26, 2005 Link to item Cite

The called life: An essay on the pastoral vocation

Journal Article Interpretation Journal of Bible and Theology · January 1, 2005 The pastoral office is God's way of helping the church discern its true vocation in the world. Before the ordained ministry is a job or a profession, it is a gift from above. ... Full text Cite

Stick with the story

Journal Article The Christian Century · 2005 It might be true that the sun rises regularly because he never gets tired of rising. His routine might be due, not to a lifelessness, but to a rush of life. The thing I mean can be seen ... in children, when they find some game or joke that they specially ... Link to item Cite

Odd job: the secret gift of ministry

Journal Article Christian Century · April 6, 2004 Link to item Cite

Odd job

Journal Article The Christian Century · 2004 For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh [the flesh of ministry]. ... Link to item Cite

Our greatest speech: recalling King's dream

Journal Article Christian Century · August 23, 2003 Link to item Cite

Our greatest speech

Journal Article The Christian Century · 2003 Within seconds of beginning, King was echoing [Langston Hughes], W. E. B. DuBois and other militant intellectuals when he characterized the Negro as an "exile" in his own land. The first half of the address, which King read in a stern and businesslike mann ... Link to item Cite

Peculiar people

Other The Christian Century · 2003 ONE OF MY FAVORITE lines in modern "religious" fiction comes from Flannery O'Connor's Wise Bood. The redoubtable country preacher, Hazel Motes, informs his landlady that he is a preacher in the "Church Without Christ" ("where the blind don't see and the la ... Link to item Cite

Repeat performance: making preaching come alive

Journal Article Christian Century · August 28, 2002 Link to item Cite

Repeat performance

Journal Article The Christian Century · 2002 BUT ON THE WHOLE, recent interest in narrative preaching has changed the terms of the law-gospel debate. In narrative preaching the mode is less kerygmatic, less existentially decisive, less outraged by evil. The narrative preacher does not explicitly rive ... Link to item Cite

A week of signs: the beginning of a ministry

Journal Article Christian Century · May 9, 2001 Link to item Cite

How do you read?

Journal Article Princeton Seminary Bulletin · January 1, 2001 Link to item Cite

A week of signs

Journal Article The Christian Century · 2001 You can't imagine this, [Shane] and [Leeta], but let me tell you a little about your future: at 28, Shane is drinking eight or ten beers a day and already daydreaming about retiring from his job on the second shift at the glassworks. Leeta is so exhausted ... Link to item Cite

Martin Luther King, Jr's Preaching as a Resource for Preachers.

Journal Article Journal for Preachers · January 1, 2000 Link to item Cite

Why I Am Not Persuasive.

Journal Article Homiletic · December 1, 1999 Link to item Cite

We have seen the Lord.

Journal Article Christian Century · March 17, 1999 Link to item Cite

A sense of ending.

Journal Article Christian Century · March 10, 1999 Link to item Cite

Acknowledgement.

Journal Article Christian Century · March 3, 1999 Link to item Cite

Strangers in the night.

Journal Article Christian Century · February 24, 1999 Link to item Cite

"Pick it up, read it"

Journal Article Christian Century · February 17, 1999 Link to item Cite

The journey begins.

Journal Article Christian Century · February 3, 1999 Link to item Cite

Cross and Craft : Two Elements of a Lutheran Homiletic.

Journal Article Concordia Journal · January 1, 1999 Link to item Cite

"The Word Is Near You" : Homiletics as a Vocation.

Journal Article Journal for Preachers · January 1, 1998 Link to item Cite

The Great Chain of Preaching.

Journal Article Preaching · March 1, 1997 Link to item Cite

How the Preacher King Borrowed Sermons.

Journal Article Christian Ministry · January 1, 1997 Link to item Cite

The Preacher King Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Word That Moved America: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Word That Moved America

Book · 1997 Annotation Today it seems extraordinary that a nation the size of the United States could have been so profoundly affected by the minister of a little Baptist church in Montgomery, Alabama. But at a turning point in American history, Martin Luther King, Jr ... Link to item Cite

The Interrupted Sermon

Journal Article Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology · April 1996 The renewal of preaching will not begin with the discovery of a new form or style in which to cast the sermon. It never has. Our effectiveness as preachers depends not on the originality of our rhetorical choices but our conformity to language tha ... Full text Cite

Martin Luther King, Jr : "Performing" the Scriptures.

Journal Article Anglican Theological Review · March 1, 1995 Link to item Cite

After Babel.

Journal Article Journal for Preachers · January 1, 1995 Link to item Cite

The preacher King : Martin Luther King, Jr. and the word that moved America: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the word that moved America

Book · 1995 Today it seems extraordinary that a nation the size of the United States could have been so profoundly affected by the minister of a little Baptist church in Montgomery, Alabama. But at a turning point in American history, Martin Luther King, Jr., had an i ... Link to item Cite

Embarrassed by God's Wrath.

Journal Article Dialog · September 1, 1994 Link to item Cite

The word that moves: The preaching of martin luther king, jr

Journal Article Theology Today · January 1, 1989 “The beautiful thing about Movement preaching was that every sermon presented the possibility of a focused response. Because every sermon was an expression of God's solidarity with the Movement, there was always something its hearers could do, hope, or suf ... Full text Cite

Preaching and the rhetoric of promise.

Journal Article Word & World · December 1, 1988 Link to item Cite

Book Review: A New Textbook on Preaching

Journal Article Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology · April 1987 Full text Cite

The Sermon on the Mount as Radical Pastoral Care

Journal Article Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology · April 1987 As the expression of God's radical pastoral care, the Sermon on the Mount can only be interpreted as communities of Christians attempt to live it. ... Full text Cite

The pulpit's promising tradition.

Journal Article Currents in Theology and Mission · April 1, 1987 Link to item Cite

"No handicapped ministers need apply"

Journal Article Christian Century · July 17, 1985 Link to item Cite

Imagining a sermon.

Journal Article Word & World · June 1, 1985 Link to item Cite

Luther's anthropology in dialogue.

Journal Article Currents in Theology and Mission · October 1, 1984 Link to item Cite

Book Review: Theology and Narrative: A Critical Introduction

Journal Article Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology · July 1984 Full text Cite

Preparation for Preaching : A German Model.

Journal Article Homiletic · January 1, 1984 Link to item Cite

The limits of story.

Journal Article Interpretation · January 1, 1984 Recent interest in "story" as a form of religious discourse pervades theology and church life. Despite its universal appeal, story has its limits, which are fourfold: 1) preoccupation with story promotes aestheticism at the expense of historical tradition ... Link to item Cite

Zu wem spricht Luther : ein Diskussionsbeitrag.

Journal Article Evangelische Theologie · November 1, 1983 The universality of Luther's appeal raises the question: Who are the most appropriate dialogue partners for Luther and Lutherans? dialogue with Luther occurs at many levels within the church, but in theology's conversations with non-theists, Luther's theo ... Link to item Cite

Luther and Contemporary Preaching: Narrative and Anthropology

Journal Article Scottish Journal of Theology · January 1, 1983 Full text Cite

Altar or table.

Journal Article Christian Century · April 7, 1982 Link to item Cite

Then comes the end.

Journal Article Dialog · March 1, 1982 Link to item Cite

Redeem the time.

Journal Article Christian Century · December 30, 1981 Link to item Cite

Preaching as theology.

Journal Article Currents in Theology and Mission · April 1, 1981 Link to item Cite

Orientation for ministry.

Journal Article Duke Divinity School Review · September 1, 1980 Link to item Cite

"Resurrexit" : something to preach.

Journal Article Christian Century · April 2, 1980 So long as people continue to work at life, despise death and hope for eternity, the perennial anguish at preaching's irrelevance need not lapse into a terminal hopelessness. [Excerpt]. ... Link to item Cite

Current challenge to Lutheran renewal : another look at Kelley's question.

Journal Article Currents in Theology and Mission · June 1, 1977 Dean Kelley's book, Why Conservative Churches Are Growing (1972), attributes the growth of the sects and conservative denominations to their rigidity and authoritarianism. The more flexible and ecumenical a church group is, he claims, the more it will ... Link to item Cite

From earth to heaven : Teilhard's politics and eschatology.

Journal Article Christian Century · April 9, 1975 Although the eschatology of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin has a utopian phase comparable to that of Karl Marx, it is actually a two-stage exchatology, progressing from socialist principles reminiscent of the Marxist millennium to the abandonment of earth in h ... Link to item Cite

Old/new theology of history.

Journal Article Christian Century · March 13, 1974 Link to item Cite

Lutheran shape of Marxian evil.

Journal Article Religion in Life · December 1, 1973 Link to item Cite

The Lutheran shape of Marxian evil.

Journal Article Religion in Life · December 1, 1973 Link to item Cite

Karl Marx and the Christian Faith Persecution or Dialogue?

Journal Article Irish Theological Quarterly · January 1, 1970 Full text Cite

Advent is a season of sighs, especially this year

Journal Article Christian century (Chicago, Ill. : 1902) Link to item Cite

Baldwin the exorcist

Journal Article Christian century (Chicago, Ill. : 1902) Link to item Cite