By R.L. Dabney
Banner of Truth. £3.95.
ISBN 0 85151 7730
Fashions in book titles change with the times, and American Baptist R.L. Dabney's book was first published in 1870 as Sacred Rhetoric. In 1979, the first Banner of Truth edition was R.L. Dabney on preaching, now we have this low-cost paperback edition with the explanatory sub-title: 'A course of lectures on preaching'. The text of the book is, of course, unchanged, so the real question is whether these more than 100 year-old lectures have anything to say to preachers struggling to be faithful to the Word of God at the dawn of the 21st century.
First impressions are perhaps not encouraging. The writing style of the 19th century is sometimes less attractive than those that went before it - I, for one, often find the Puritans more accessible than, say, Andrew Jukes. Then discussion of the various departments and divisions of rhetoric has long fallen out of use in an age when the emphasis seems so often to be placed on the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And, of course, there is our passion for friendliness and informality which we feel might be hampered by the constraints of a classical approach.
