Mike Graves. The Sermon as Symphony: Preaching the Literary Forms of the New Testament. Valley Forge: Judson Press. 1997. 289 pp. ISBN 0-8170-1257-5

Mike Graves, Professor of Homiletics at Central Baptist Seminary in Kansas City, Kansas, following in the trend of recent scholarship which attempts to relate the fields of biblical studies and homiletics, has offered one of the most significant works in homiletics this year. The trend follows in the steps of Tom Long, Fred Craddock, David Buttrick and others who maintain that the form of the Biblical text ought to dictate the form of the sermon. The Sermon as Symphony is intended more as a reference tool than as a work to be read straight through.

As the title suggests, Graves makes much of musical imagery in suggesting that a sermon's effects on its listeners ought to be comparable to the effect of a fine symphony. Graves forthrightly asserts that he is attempting to build on the work of Tom Long. Graves distinguishes between form and genre.

Genre is a broader category of biblical literature comprising of gospel, acts, epistle and apocalypse. Form is a smaller subset within a genre such as parables, aphorisms and Johannine discourses within the gospel genre, and poetic exhortations, and hymns and poetry within the epistles. Graves differs from Long in his narrower focus on the forms, rather than on the broader genres of biblical literature. Graves asserts that the ideal in "form-sensitive preaching is maintaining the proper 'respect' for the text and its literary form." This is to say a sermon on the Lord's Prayer does not have to be in the form of a prayer; a sermon on the Hymn to Christ in Philippians 2 does not have to be sung.

Graves calls for Biblical interpretation which allows the form of the text to influence interpretation much as differing shapes and sizes of envelopes in the mailbox provide clues to what is in the letter. Drawing from musical terminology, as the title of the book would suggest, Graves says that effective, form-sensitive preaching harmonizes the mood and the movement of a biblical text. An effective preacher will know how to accentuate the mood swings inherent in a biblical text such as John 11, when the despair over the death of Lazarus gives way to victory in the raising of Lazarus from the dead. At the same time, there may be a mood change in the text, the movement refers to the logical progression of thought in the text.

Form-sensitive preaching is interested in saying and doing what the text is doing. While that seems essential to faithful and effective proclamation of the text, Graves argues that the approach he is advocating is merely one among many. A faithful and effective preacher will also know his or her worship context and the listening styles of those who are listening. Graves offers the disclaimer that "when communication theory, or what the preacher knows about the congregation, or common sense seem to dictate otherwise, the preacher should not feel bound to follow slavishly the text's own structure. The primary emphasis in form-sensitive preaching is being true to the mood.