Draft:Timothy Slemmons

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Timothy Matthew Slemmons (born in 1962) is the Professor of Homiletics and Worship at the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary at the University of Dubuque in Dubuque, Iowa. He received his BS degree from Kansas State University in 1984, and his Masters of Divinity and his Masters of Theology from Columbia Theological Seminary in 1995 and 1999, respectively; his first theological degree included a year of study abroad at the University of Glasgow; he earned his Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 2004, where his dissertation focussed on Kierkegaard's view of homiletics. In 1994, Slemmons received the David H. C. Read Preacher/Scholar Award from Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church; in 2106, he was indicted into the University of Dubuque Faculty Hall of Fame when he was awarded the John Knox Coit Prize in teaching and student advising.[1] He was ordained in 1995 by the Presbytery of Northern Kansas as a Minister of the Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). He began his service as a preacher at the Central Presbyterian Church, Tarentum, Pennsylvania, and after completing his doctorate, served as interim pastor at the First Presbyterian Church of Titusville, New Jersey, while serving for two years as visiting lecturer at Princeton.

Slemmons' traditionally Reformed view of preaching lays primary emphasis on the authority of Scripture and divine agency in the proclamation of the Word; nevertheless, owing to the breadth and complexity of the written revelation, the preacher's first task is inescapably interpretive and dialectical, as explained in his Groans of the Spirit: Homiletical Dialectics in an Age of Confusion, while rhetorical concerns play a more supportive, ancillary role; as important as the sermon's stylistic elements are, they should serve, but never displace the substance of the message.

Lectionary expansion

Appealing to the transformational logic of James E. Loder, Slemmons has proposed tempering the popular use of the Revised Common Lectionary in mainline churches, with an expansive approach, one that exercises frequent recourse to the fullness of the Reformed canon of Scripture and leans in the direction of continuous reading (lectio continua) and Expository preaching. In Year D: A Quadrennial Supplement to the Revised Common Lectionary, he has assembled a full year of suggested preaching texts from those omitted from the RCL's three-year cycle. His 4-volume Liturgical Elements for Reformed Worship series is unique in that, after providing worship elements for Years A, B, and C according to the RCL, it offers a fourth volume, Greater Attention in order to frame liturgies into which sermons on Year D texts fit more readily. A related series of commentaries on Year D texts, Waste Not the Fragments, is also emerging.

Revenant Psalms

Slemmons' design of Year D began with assigning some 40 to 50 psalms omitted from the Sunday lectionary to an additional year. These omitted psalms, admittedly difficult owing to their plaintive and imprecatory character and (frequently) their individual voice, he has set to five volumes of what he calls Revenant Psalms. They consist of over fifty guitar-based settings, using various combinations of traditional (p.d.) paraphrases and tunes, his adaptations of the same, and (as the project progressed) more original paraphrases and settings in odd-time signatures.

Bible Studies and Lay Education

In view of the decline in mainline denominations, Slemmons has sought to supply resources to support foundational catechesis in such works as his study of the Lord's Prayer in Our Father Knows: The Prayer that Jesus Taught, and his translation of Heinrich Bullinger, "What All Christians Should Know". In response to a growing pastor shortage and the rise of lay preachers and ruling elders to fill the gaps, Slemmons has distilled his primary courses on preaching and worship into two "short course" texts: A Short Course in Preaching, and A Short Course in Reformed Worship.

Translation work

Slemmons has also devoted much of his scholarship to the translation of overlooked, but seminal sources from the Reformation, most notably the first generation Basel Reformer Johannes Oecolampadius, whom he has argued, in his contribution to a recent festschrift in honor of Hughes Oliphant Old, should be remembered as "The Reformer of Preaching." His Works of Oecolampadius series on B&NPress (2017—present) now stretches to five volumes.

Preaching to Delight and Console

Among Slemmons' relatively few narrative sermons, three that risk a rhyming scheme while studiously shunning doggerel, have been published as illustrated works. Two of these are Christmas Eve sermons: A Phenomenal Llama, illustrated by Danielle Baudouin, and A Coaltrain Bound for Christmas. His Lenten sermon based on Psalm 137, The Secret of Salix Babylonicus, explores the experience of exile, suffering, and grief, offers the image of the willow as pastoral listener, and interlaces redemptive themes of repentance, music therapy, and hope.

Books and publications

  • Groans of the Spirit: Homiletical Dialectics in an Age of Confusion (2010), ISBN 978-1498254397
  • Year D: A Quadrennial Supplement to the Revised Common Lectionary (2012), ISBN 978-1610973120
  • Lightning from the East: Liturgical Elements for Reformed Worship, Year A (2014), ISBN 978-1620320006
  • When Heaven Stands Open: Liturgical Elements for Reformed Worship, Year B (2013), ISBN 978-1620320013
  • The Joyful Feast: Liturgical Elements for Reformed Worship, Year C (2014), ISBN 978-1620320020
  • Greater Attention: Liturgical Elements for Reformed Worship, Year D (2013), ISBN 978-1620320037
  • A Phenomenal Llama: A Tall Christmas Tale for Children of All Ages (2013), ISBN 978-1490451497
  • The Secret of Salix Babylonicus: A Parable of the Weeping Willow (2014), ISBN 978-1500142216
  • The Freedom of Christ: Sermons on Galatians (2015), ISBN 978-1508593348
  • Our Father Knows: The Prayer that Jesus Taught (2016), ISBN 978-1530033652
  • The Good Confession (2020), ISBN 979-8619006148
  • A Coaltrain Bound for Christmas (2022), ISBN 979-8352070215
  • A Short Course in Preaching: Daily Reading as the Seedbed of Sermons (2023), ISBN 979-8850424664
  • "What All Christians Should Know," in Theology Matters, Volume 29, Number 2 (Spring 2023), pp. 8-11.
  • A Short Course in Reformed Worship: The Work of the Holy Spirit on, in, for, and with those in Christ with Eternity in their Hearts (2024), ISBN 979-8883355997

References



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