In Fosdick's book The Hope of the World, there are twenty-five sermons: fourteen concern the individual hearer, three have to do mainly with social problems, six combine both elements, and two are difficult to classify. The social element never predominates over the individual. In discussing a social problem one ought to show how it concerns the individual. In a 1932 sermon, "The Lord Speaks to the Preacher," he said: "The social gospel is not modern. There has never been any genuine Christianity without it." He argued that if one begins with the personal gospel, one must go on to the social gospel. If one begins with the social gospel, one must carry one's thinking through to personal religion.
Fosdick owed his influence also to his practical psychology. He read the mind of the modern man. For many years he held a Protestant confessional, long clinical interviews with individuals, about which he wrote in his book, On Being a Real Person. He used the Bible freely and skillfully. For example, his sermon "Handling Life's Second Bests" contains more echoes of the Bible than many preachers would have in a month. However, the Scriptures seem to afford a source of interesting materials rather than any kind of authority for Fosdick.
A. J. Gossip says in one of his sermons: "Dr. Fosdick is reported to have said that the business of the man in the pulpit is to preach on what is real and pressing to his hearer's minds. An excellent counsel up to a point. But it is only a half-truth and half-truths are potentially dangerous. The biblical preacher is often compelled to begin with God rather than a life-situation and point out where the people should be if they want to know Christ."
Fosdick owed his influence most of all to his homiletic ability. As a craftsman, he was a workman who needed not to be ashamed. If we may borrow and change one of his sermon topics, "The Fine Art of Making Goodness Attractive," he shows how to make preaching attractive to people of culture. In reading his many books I do not remember running across a crude expression or a rhetorical infelicity. His topics are always appealing, as are the titles of his books. Consider these two topics: "Keeping One's Footing in a Slippery Time," and "Six Ways to Tell Right from Wrong." No expert in advertising could improve on those titles.
His opening sentences usually prove arresting. If not in the first sentence, at least in the opening paragraph, he makes clear the problem in hand. As a rule the introduction is brief. Then follows a message with sturdy structure. Sometimes he calls attention to his headings; often he does not. But he always knows his route before he starts to speak. For developing the plan he uses the art of repetition.
In almost every sermon, he employs a wealth of facts. He is a master of the art of illustration and quotation. These facts he uses as building blocks rather than as windows. His central message is made clear and luminous by the use of specific fact. He lifts the lid and sees into the modern mind thinking or struggling with its confusions. Like Prospero to Caliban, he might say, speaking to individuals in the congregation: "I pitied thee, took pains to make thee speak, endowed thy purposes with words to make them known."