Conversations with Barth on Preaching

by Margaret Gisler

Where Willimon draws out Barth's theology of preaching from dense dogmatic sources, Tan does the reverse—he takes biblical text and systematically builds practical sermon architecture from it. You'll find the same reverence for the Word, but approached through the preacher's actual workshop rather than the theologian's study.

by Thomas G. Long

Campbell engages with Barth's legacy too, but he's asking a different question: how does a preacher actually embody the Word rather than just proclaim it? It's like watching someone take Barth's high theology and ask 'yes, but what does this look like on Sunday morning when you're standing in front of real people?'

by Andrew Murray

This is your surprise pick—a devotional meditation from 1895 that predates Barth entirely, yet captures something essential about what Willimon finds in Barth: the radical reorientation required when you realize preaching isn't about your eloquence but about getting yourself out of God's way. It's theology through spiritual practice rather than systematic argument.

by Karl Barth

Berkouwer was working in Barth's orbit but with a different accent—he's equally serious about Scripture's authority but more attentive to how human reception and interpretation actually function. If Willimon's book made you curious about other twentieth-century theologians wrestling with similar questions, this is the natural next conversation.

by David Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Lloyd-Jones was preaching in the same era as Barth but from a different tradition entirely—evangelical rather than Reformed, experiential rather than systematic. Yet he shares Barth's conviction that preaching is the central act of the church. Reading this after Willimon gives you a productive argument between two giants about what faithful proclamation actually requires.