The past year has been one in which no major homiletical treatises were released, but a variety of interesting and useful volumes on preaching were produced. One of those — The Supremacy of God in Preaching by John Piper, published by Baker Book House — has been named the 1992 Preaching Book of the Year.
Piper, senior pastor of the vibrant Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, has produced a small volume which takes on a large task: to remind all of us that God Himself must be at the center of all authentic Christian preaching. He carries out that task with power and skill.
Stating his own case, Piper notes: “My burden is to plead for the supremacy of God in preaching — that the dominant note of preaching be the freedom of God’s sovereign grace, the unifying theme be the zeal that God has for His own glory, the grand object of preaching be the infinite and inexhaustible being of God, and the pervasive atmosphere of preaching be the holiness of God.”
In his review of Piper’s book in the March-April 1991 issue of Preaching, R. Albert Mohler made the following observations:
“The volume does not read as a set of lecture manuscripts. Its power and persuasiveness grows out of its forthright message: that much of contemporary preaching is not preaching at all, and that only that preaching which takes the glory of God as its central message is worthy of the gospel.”
“Piper is not reluctant to offend modern sensibilities. The influence of classical and puritan preachers is evident, even in the measured and direct language Piper employs.”
“The Supremacy of God in Preaching should be on every preacher’s mandatory reading list for the coming months. Though its length is brief (110 pages), its impact promises to be lasting.”
Other books by John Piper include:
– The Pleasures of God: Meditations on God’s Delight in Being God (Multnomah Press, 1991)
– Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist (Multnomah Press, 1986)
– Love Your Enemies: Jesus Love Command in the Synoptic Gospels and the Early Christian Paraenesis (Baker Book House, 1991; Cambridge University Press, 1980)
– Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (Crossway, 1991), co-edited with Wayne Grudem.
