Articulation: The movement of the preacher’s lips, jaw, soft pallet, and tongue to form various sounds.
Articulation is sometimes called diction. When articulation is done well, the physiological movements of jaw, soft pallet, and tongue become recognizable, clear, and distinct speech. One of the goals of good preaching is to be articulate, to enunciate words clearly, without overarticulating in a way that appears affected or overdone. Articulation problems are usually the result of either omitting sounds or syllables (“wanna” instead of “want to”), substituting an inappropriate sound for the correct one (“nucular” for “nuclear”), or adding sounds that should not be there (“athalete” instead of “athlete”).
John McClure’s Preaching Words highlights the most important ideas in homiletics and preaching, offering short explanations of these ideas, what scholars of preaching are saying about them, and how they can help in today’s preaching. Topics range from elements of the sermon (introduction, body, and conclusion) to aspects of delivery, types of preaching in different Christian traditions, and theories of preaching.
“This is one of the freshest concepts I've come across in three decades of teaching preaching...If you have ever worried about having a small hole in your grasp of the field or if there are areas of newer thinking that are not entirely clear to you, this is the book to grab. John McClure will take you on a tour of homiletics that misses nothing and explains all.”—Jana Childers, San Francisco Theological Seminary
“Preaching Words is a Whitman's sampler of key terms in the field of contemporary homiletics….Homiletics teachers and weekly preachers will find it equally helpful. McClure has done the field of homiletics a service in preparing this glossary of key terms that somehow manages to be engaging as well as informative.”—Alyce M. McKenzie, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University
John S. McClure is Charles G. Finney Professor of Homiletics and Chair of the Graduate Department of Religion, The Divinity School, Vanderbilt University. A former president of the Academy of Homiletics, his writings include The Four Codes of Preaching: Rhetorical Strategies and Claiming Theology in the Pulpit (with Burton Z Cooper).
