Abstract
In Dem Dry Bones, Powery assesses contemporary preaching as collectively evading the authentic message of hope due to its avoidance of the inevitability of suffering and death as the context in which hope arises. The book’s message calls for a return to the sense of urgency in preaching. Ezekiel 37 serves as the primary biblical reference point for Powery’s arguments regarding preaching that reaches the depths of the human soul beyond death and despair without its avoidance. He stresses that death denial ideology has permeated both secular culture and ecclesiastical discourse. Throughout the book, the author denounces ‘prosperity gospel’ for its failure to confront the harsh reality of the human condition. Although Powery references Frank Thomas, the book would have benefited with an explanation on what Thomas mentions as confusing biblical prosperity with culturally-based materialistic prosperity.
The book’s most unique feature rests in the author’s displays of exemplary scholarship in his continuous demonstration of how the spirituals which have been rooted in the ‘invisible institution’ during the antebellum actually function as a testament to the universal human experience of struggle for hope beyond hopelessness, freedom beyond oppression, and joy beyond pain. ‘The spirituals challenge nonchalant, causal preaching in which nothing appears to be at stake, as if God will not be present in and through sermons’ (p. 49).
The book’s targeted audience includes preachers and practical theologians while having a broad appeal to academics and laity across theological camps. The text will challenge both liberal interpreters and scriptural literalists due to the author’s argument that ‘spiritual preaching begins with humanity and exegesis of the human landscape because people have priority in the spiritual homiletical tradition’ (p. 113). Theologically conservative readers can mistakenly find parts of the text as denouncing the Bible as un-authoritative, if they fail to read the text entirely. Powery stresses that the Bible functions as one of many significant means to hope while he emphasizes that preacher’s cannot construct hope. However, ‘hope is a gift from God the Spirit, the Animator, the Breath of hope’ (p. 80).
Chapter four provides two key features that serve as immediate help for preachers. Beginning in the middle of the chapter, Powery provides eight practical strategies for preaching hope by way of death and what he terms ‘smaller deaths.’ At the end of the chapter, the author provides an extensive list of exegetic questions that can assist in sermon preparation when using the spirituals as a centerpiece in the hermeneutical approach to connect human needs with the biblical message. Dem Dry Bones ultimately seeks to inspire bearers of the biblical message to revisit the context of extreme hardship and lament, while equipping the readers to further explore the contemporary relevance found in the narration and musical sensibilities of the spirituals.