Theology

This chapter examines the pulpit of Protestant Dissent in nineteenth-century Britain and North America. It focuses on a specific rhetorical genre: the lectures that seasoned ministers gave to young men just starting their careers. Texts considered include Charles Haddon Spurgeon’s Lectures to My Students; the Yale Lectures on Preaching by Henry Ward Beecher, R.W. Dale, and other prominent figures; and several discourses delivered before the Theological Union of Victoria University, in Toronto, Canada. Topics addressed in the chapter include the importance of pastoral visitation and prayer; suggestions for overseeing music, Scripture readings, and all other aspects of the worship service; the goals and purposes of preaching; and strategies and techniques for preparing and delivering sermons. The chapter concludes by suggesting avenues for further study. Promising topics might include comparing these lectures to other nineteenth- and twentieth-century discourses and examining sermon texts written not only by the lecturers themselves, but also by women, people of colour, and others not represented in this study.