Presbyterian Mission Agency candler school of theology Archives

Loving our enemies is not only possible — it’s what Jesus requires of us

Posted March 14th, 2024

Fittingly, Wednesday’s Chapel service put on by Presbyterian Publishing Corporation staff featured a thoughtful and challenging sermon by an author published in November by Westminster John Knox Press.

Thou shalt not steal

Posted May 2nd, 2022

Thanks to the pandemic, tens of thousands of worship services are now posted online each week. For at least some stressed preachers who may be pressed for time, the temptation can be overwhelming to hear a well-crafted online sermon somewhere and pass all or part of it off as one’s own.

Preaching to reach those who are present and those overhearing from the Court of the Gentiles

Posted September 17th, 2021

Dr. Tom Long was in an airport terminal last Saturday when this announcement got everyone’s attention: Please observe a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m. to remember the people killed in the 9/11 attacks 20 years before.

‘No Longer Shall They Teach One Another: The End of Theological Education’

Posted May 6th, 2021

The Rev. Dr. Ted A. Smith, Professor of Preaching and Ethics in the Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, presented the fourth and final 2021 Sprunt Lecture Wednesday, hosted by Union Presbyterian Seminary. The final virtual lecture was followed by a Q&A session on the overall lecture theme “No Longer Shall they Teach One Another: The End of Theological Education.”

God is ‘the subject of every sentence that ends in redemption’

Posted May 5th, 2021

Before launching into the third of his four Sprunt Lectures Tuesday evening, the Rev. Dr. Ted A. Smith offered what he called “a sermonic interlude” based on Jeremiah 31:31-34.

The end of theological education?

Posted May 4th, 2021

To Presbyterians and others concerned about the future of theological education, the Rev. Dr. Ted A. Smith had these words of comfort: We’ve been here before.

‘Look well to the growing edge!’

Posted April 8th, 2021

The Rev. Dr. Gregory Ellison II has discovered heaven on Earth. For him it involves spending time at the Haley Farm in Clinton, Tennessee, with others who admire, as he does, the late Rev. Dr. Howard Thurman, one of Christianity’s most celebrated authors, preachers, scholars and mystics — and then being asked to edit a book on Thurman.

New book encourages interfaith engagement between Christians and Muslims

Posted March 17th, 2020

For a long time, American Christians have been hearing a story about Islam. It’s a story about conflict and hostility, about foreigners and strangers. At the heart of this story is a fundamental incompatibility between the two religions going all the way back to their original encounters. According to that story, the only valid Christian response to Islam is resistance.

A new suit and an act of contrition

Posted February 13th, 2019

The Rev. Dr. Tom Long proposes a different narrative to one of mainline church decline.