What will, what should, what can preaching look like in the 21st century? This is an exciting and challenging time for preachers. The diversity of their listeners, the place of the church in the broader culture, and the opportunities and challenges presented by technology are causing us to rethink and re-envision preaching. To this important conversation Dr. Hogan brings a rich and varied background. She is interested in creativity and the creative process. Having been a painter and graphic artist and having taught art, she finds a great overlay between the teaching of art and of preaching. She is also discovering that the growing use of visual media in sermons and worship services requires preachers to become familiar with the art vocabulary and critical skills important in an art classroom.
The intersection of rhetoric, persuasion, and preaching has also been a focus of Dr. Hogan's teaching and academic writing. How do we understand the human role in this divine project? God calls preachers and gives to them the gifts of knowledge, language, relationship, and leadership. How are we to develop and use those gifts in the service of God and the church? How do we nurture our preaching skills? How do we learn to shape our words, our messages for the diverse communities of listeners to whom we may be sent? In addition, an important dimension of persuasion and preaching is the ethics of preaching. How are preachers responsible to God and to their listeners? In the preaching classes we explore and discuss these important questions.
Teaching preaching also gives Dr. Hogan the opportunity to draw together the entire seminary curriculum. A good preacher is a good biblical scholar and theologian. A good preacher knows the history of the church, and understands the broader culture. Preaching is a pastoral activity through which the community of the church is strengthened. And preachers must also be familiar with the skills provided by the social sciences which help them to analyze and understand the congregation to whom they will be preaching.
While she is far from a computer "geek" or "techie," Dr. Hogan is coming to appreciate the great potential that media technology, the new "stained glass," holds for preaching and worship. The use of technology in the worship and preaching of the church is a growing edge in her teaching. From 2004-2006 Dr. Hogan held a Lilly Faculty Research Grant to examine the use of technology in preaching.
Courses Taught:
- Preaching and Worship
Education:
- Macalester College, B.A.
- Virginia Theological Seminary, M.Div.
- Wesley Theological Seminary, D.Min.
- University of Maryland, Ph.D.
Publications:
- Connecting with the Congregation: Rhetoric and the Art of Preaching (with Robert Reid), Abingdon Press, 1999
- Contributor to Proclamation Series, Fortress Press, 2005
- Graceful Speech: An Invitation to Preaching,Westminster John Knox Press, 2006
