Lyman Beecher Lectures

One of the most distinguished lecture series on preaching in the world, the Lyman Beecher Lectureship was founded in 1871 by a gift from Henry W. Sage of Brooklyn, N.Y., as a memorial to "the great divine whose name it bears," to sponsor an annual series of lectures on a topic appropriate to the work of the ministry. A complete list of the Beecher lectures is available here.

Many lectures, from 1949 onward, have been recorded and their audio or audio-visual files are available upon request to the Divinity Library.

2021

Will Willimon ’71 M.Div., Professor of the Practice of Christian Ministry at Duke Divinity School

Preachers Dare: Speaking for God

• Lecture I: Preaching: An Impossible Possibility (September 14)
• Lecture II: Preaching: God Getting What God Wants (September 15)
• Lecture III: The One True Preacher  (September 16)

2020

No lectures.

2019

Rev. Dr. Leonora Tubbs Tisdale, Clement-Muehl Professor of Homiletics at Yale Divinity School, Emerita

"Women Preachers in the United States"

• Lecture I: Women Preachers in the U.S.: A 60 Year Retrospective (October 16)
• Lecture II: Reclaiming Herstory: Early Women Preachers in the U.S. (October 17)
• Lecture III: Women Preachers and the Transformation of Homiletics (October 18)

2018

Charles L. Campbell’82 S.T.M., Professor of Homiletics at Duke Divinity School

"The Scandal of the Gospel: Preaching and the Grotesque"

• Lecture I: Jesus in the Grotto: The Gospel as Grotesque (October 17)
• Lecture II:  The Thing: Resisting the Weaponized Grotesque (October 18,)
• Lecture III:  Incarnate Word: Preaching and the Carnivalesque Grotesque (October 19)

2017

Rev. Dr. Allan Boesak, South African liberation theologian, human rights activist, former Desmond Tutu Chair at CTS

“One More River to Cross – Black Liberation Theology, Black Preaching, and Unanswered Challenges – An Initial Response”

• Lecture I: Poisoned Well or Waters of Life – Black Theology, Black Preaching, Scripture and the Quality of Discernment (October 18)
• Lecture II: The Birthing Stool, The River Bank, and the Sea Shore – Black Theology, the Women of Exodus, and the Character of Liberation (October 19)
• Lecture III: Drinking from the Waters of Meribah – Black Liberation Theology and the Integrity of Radical Engagement (October 20)

2016

Thomas Troeger, Lantz Professor Emeritus, Yale Divinity School/Institute of Sacred Music

“The End of Preaching”

• Lecture I: The Church's Banquet (October 19)
• Lecture II: The Soul in Paraphrase, Heart in Pilgrimage (October 20)
• Lecture III: Something Understood (October 21)

2015

Alyce M. McKenzie, George W. and Nell Ayers Le Van Professor of Preaching and Worship at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University (SMU)

“Making a Scene in the Pulpit: Vivid Sermons for Visual Listeners”

• Lecture I: Scene is the New Story (October 21)
• Lecture II: The Preacher as Scene-Maker (October 22)
• Lecture III: The Scenic Sermon (October 23)

2014

Otis Moss III, Pastor, Trinity United Church of Christ (Chicago)

“The Blue Note Gospel: Preaching the Prophetic Blues in a Post-Soul World"

• Lecture I (October 22)
• Lecture II (October 23)
• Lecture III (October 24)

2013

Robin R. Meyers, Senior Minister, Mayflower Congregational UCC Church (Oklahoma City)

"UNDONE: Faith as Resistance to Ego, Orthodoxy, and Empire"

• Lecture I: UNDONE:  Faith as Resistance to Ego (October 23)
• Lecture II: UNDONE:  Faith as Resistance to Orthodoxy (October 24)
• Lecture III: UNDONE:  Faith as Resistance to Empire (October 25)

Click on the links to watch the lectures on the YDS YouTube Channel

Audio CDs available for purchase from the YDS Student Book Supply

2012

Anna Carter Florence, Peter Marshall Associate Professor of Preaching, Columbia Theological Seminary (Decatur, Georgia)

“The Word in the Repertory Church”

• Lecture I: The Script in the Scripture, the Word in Rehearsal: Proclamation in the Repertory Church (October 24)
• Lecture II: It Could Have Gone Differently: Repertory Readings of Texts of Terror (October 25)
• Lecture III: Old Texts, New Works: The Repertory Preacher and the Company of Grace (October 26)

Click on the links to watch the lectures on the YDS YouTube Channel

Audio CDs available for purchase from the YDS Student Book Supply

2011

Brian K.  Blount, President, Union Presbyterian Seminary (Richmond, Virginia)

“Invasion of the Dead: Preaching Resurrection through the Lens of Apocalyptic Eschatology”

• Lecture I: Dawn of the Dead:  Preaching Revelation (October 10)
• Lecture II: Apocalyptic Vulnerability: Preaching Paul (October 11)
• Lecture III: Invasion of the Dead: Preaching Mark (October 12)

Click on the links to watch the lectures on the YDS YouTube Channel

Audio CDs available for purchase from the YDS Student Book Supply

2010

Mary Catherine Hilkert, O.P., Professor of Theology, University of Notre Dame

"Words of Spirit and Life"

• Lecture I: "Announcing the Things to Come: The Holy Spirit and the Power of Preaching" (October 11)
• Lecture II: "The role of the Holy Spirit as the empowerment of all genuine preaching and hearing of the Gospel" (October 12)
• Lecture III: "We Testify to This:" The Promise of Resurrection and the Wisdom of the Cross (October 13)

Click on the links to watch the lectures on the YDS YouTube Channel

Audio CDs available for purchase from the YDS Student Book Supply

2009

Eugene L. Lowry, William K. McElvaney Professor of Preaching Emeritus, Saint Paul School of Theology (Leawood, Kansas)

"Keeping Time with the Word: The Sound of the Sermon"

• Lecture I: Time After Time: The Three Levels of Narrativity (October 12)
• Lecture II: Encountering the Aristotle Blues: A Jazz Homiletic of Narrative Address and Piano Improvisation (October 13)
• Lecture III: Recovering the Voice(s) of Orality (October 14)

Click on the links to watch the lectures on the YDS YouTube Channel

Audio CDs available for purchase from the YDS Student Book Supply

2008

Renita J. Weems, Biblical Scholar, Author, Minister

"Preaching Against the Grain: Recovering the Voices of Those from the Underside of History"

• Lecture I: Preaching from the "Underside" of the Book of Jeremiah: Gods, Goddesses, and Matters of Gender (October 13)
• Lecture II: Preaching from the "Underside" of the Book of Samuel: David, Jonathan, and Justice (October 14)
• Lecture III: The Preacher in Paradise Preaching from the "Underside" of the Gospels: Jesus, Zealots, and Tax Collectors (October 15)

Click on the links to watch the lectures on the YDS YouTube Channel

Audio CDs available for purchase from the YDS Student Book Supply

2007

Peter S. Hawkins, Professor of Religion, Boston University

"The Preacher's Divine Comedy"

• Lecture I: The Preacher in Hell (October 8)
• Lecture II: The Preacher in Purgatory (October 9)
• Lecture III: The Preacher in Paradise (October 10)

Click on the links to watch the lectures on the YDS YouTube Channel

Audio CDs available for purchase from the YDS Student Book Supply

Published as Undiscovered Country: Imagining the World to Come (New York: Seabury Books, 2009)

2006

Thomas G. Long, Banding Professor of Preaching, Candler School of Theology, Emory University

“Preaching from Memory to Hope”

• Lecture I: A Likely Story: The Perils and Power of Narrative in Preaching (October 9)
• Lecture II:  No News is Bad News: The Presence of the Word in Preaching (October 12)
• Lecture III:  Preaching in the Future Perfect Tense: Eschatology and Proclamation (October 13)

Click on the links to watch the lectures on the YDS YouTube Channel

Audio CDs available for purchase from the YDS Student Book Supply

Published as Preaching from Memory to Hope (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009)

2005

Harry S. Stout, Professor of American Christianity, Yale University

"Preaching Morality in America's Civil War"

• Lecture I: And the War Came (October 10)
• Lecture II: The Conduct of the War (October 11)
• Lecture III: The War and the American Civil Religion (October 12)

2004

Otis Moss, Jr., Pastor, Olivet Institutional Baptist Church (Cleveland, Ohio)

“Preaching as Prophetic Ministry”

• Lecture I: Personal: The Bold Adventure (October 13)
• Lecture II: Social Justice: The Tie That Binds (October 12)
• Lecture III: Global: The Binding Commitment (October 13)

Click on the links to watch the lectures on the YDS YouTube Channel

Audio CDs available for purchase from the YDS Student Book Supply