Sacramental Presence

While Hooke writes from an Episcopal perspective, the work engages theologians and theologies across many different Christian traditions and is by no means exclusively Episcopalian. Those interested in preaching and embodiment, or preaching and the sacraments, will find a wealth of knowledge. A background in sacramental theology is not necessary to read the work, but it would be helpful as the book seems to presume an academic audience. Hooke's clear writing and continual guidance on the importance of the topics at hand help readers through the technical material. With Christ at the center, Sacramental Presence helps us approach preaching and the sacraments through divine participation. Hooke's clarity, depth, and ethical orientation in Sacramental Presence make the book an invaluable embodied resource on sacramental preaching.

Ruthanna B. Hooke is one of the most insightful thinkers in the field of preaching today. With a firm grasp of theology, history, liturgy, homiletics, and scripture, she shines a bright light on preaching as a deeply human act gathered into the intimacy of the fullness of God. She guides us toward the kind of proclamation most needed in our time and in every time, preaching that is "loving, courageous, honest, open, and powerful." This is a wonderful book, a book to ponder and to savor.

Ruthanna Hooke has long been a singular scholar on preaching and the body and this outstanding text reveals why her voice is so vital. She brings four streams together: the voice of the theologian, the voice of the homiletician, the voice of the priest, and that of the voice teacher. Together they yield a liturgical theology of preaching that puts a bright spotlight on the role of the body. Anyone thirsting for a study of preaching that takes liturgy seriously will have that thirst quenched in this exceptional book.

Ruthanna Hooke invites homiletic theory more deeply into the mysteries of word and sacrament and does so by means of our humanity and our very bodies. In her insightful work, word and sacrament are not matters of mere signs; but instead implicate the splanchna, the very human viscera in which the Triune God encounters us in the means of grace. Thanks to Hooke, neither homiletical theology nor the practice of preaching will ever be the same again.

Sacramental Presence is one of the most thoughtful books I know on embodiment in preaching; it is also one of the richest engagements with systematic theology in recent homiletical literature. But the real wonder of this book comes as these virtues converge in theological reflection on lived, bodily experience for the sake of preaching. This book has already renewed my own preaching and changed the ways I try to teach preaching to others.

This is a remarkably original and timely book about the embodied nature of preaching, encapsulating not only a theory about preaching's sacramental meaning, but also about its participatory and inner-trinitarian significance. Ruthanna Hooke writes in a limpid prose which is as accessible as it is profound. Whether you are a would-be preacher or an experienced one, this is a book that will decisively change your perspective on what it is to attempt to hear, and then proclaim, God's word: with mind, affect, voice and embodied gesture.