Communicating the Faith Indirectly: Selected Sermons, Addresses, and Prayers

In his teaching and his writing, Paul L. Holmer (1916-2004), Professor of Philosophy at the University of Minnesota (1946-1960) and Noah Porter Professor of Philosophical Theology at Yale Divinity School (1960-1987), not only made important contributions to recent American theology, but was also much in demand as a public speaker and preacher. Following his death, the Holmer family in 2005 donated his papers to the Yale Divinity School Library. In this, the third volume of The Paul L. Holmer Papers: ‘Communicating the Faith Indirectly’, the reader will see Holmer’s deep concern with the problems and possibilities of the sermon, liturgy, ministry, and spirituality. Inspired by Soren Kierkegaard’s reflections on indirect communication , and by Ludwig Wittgenstein, Holmer not only reveals his strenuous reflection on the sermon, but also gives concrete examples of his own efforts to communicate, enabling his hearers and readers to make sense of their lives. In the first part of this volume, Holmer reflects upon Kierkegaard’s indirect communication , a communication not of knowledge but of human capacity. In other pieces Holmer turns to liturgy, ministry, and spirituality. In the second part of this volume, the reader sees Holmer’s own challenging, uncompromising practice of religious and Christian communication, in a selection of his sermons, addresses, and prayers. For anyone concerned with sermons, liturgy, spirituality, and the challenges of ministry, Holmer’s essays and addresses will prove indispensable. This is the third volume of The Paul L. Holmer Papers, which includes also volume 1, ‘On Kierkegaard and the Truth’, and volume 2, ‘Thinking the Faith with Passion: Selected Essays’.