Harry Emerson Fosdick was born in 1878 at Buffalo, New York. He graduated from Colgate University in 1900, then went to Union Seminary in New York until 1904. He served as minister of the First Baptist Church in Montclair, New Jersey between 1904-1915, and at First Presbyterian Church in New York City from 1918-1925. He became pastor of Riverside Church in 1926 and remained there until he retired in 1946. He died in 1969.

Andrew Blackwood once said of Fosdick's sermons: "If any young man wishes to learn what to preach, he may look elsewhere; but if he would learn how to preach, let him tarry here." An editorial in The Christian Century some years ago said: "Until some new figure of comparable stature arises, the historian of the American pulpit will have to say that the three names which shine brightest are those of Henry Ward Beecher, Phillips Brooks, and Dr. Fosdick." When Bishop Brilioth of Sweden discusses American preaching in his Donellan Lectures, Fosdick is among the six preachers whom he regards as sufficiently prominent and pivotal to deserve attention.

Fosdick's influence may be attributed partly to his use of psychology and partly to his mastery of homiletics. His study habits were well organized. From the outset of his ministry he never let up in a steady, persistent program of reading and study. What is more, much of it was basic: the classics in the original, English literature, history, and sociology. This explains why he became eventually what W. G. Shepherd called "a preacher who reaches the heart through the intellect."

He chose his subject early in the week, worked hard on it, wrote it out in full, and drew off an outline of it for use on Sunday. His sermons follow an orderly structure and abound in quotable sentences. Most of his sermons contain one central thought which is stated in the introduction. It is expanded, illustrated, repeated, and made concrete until the congregation is saturated with the idea.

In 1958, a collection of some of the best of the nearly six hundred sermons that Fosdick preached between 1930 and 1946 appeared under the title Riverside Sermons. Fifteen begin with a direct reference to Scripture or swing the argument to Scripture in the opening minutes. Everywhere is evident a love of, a faith in, and a profound knowledge of the Bible. Three sermons begin with some telling incident from the contemporary scene, ten begin with and keep close to some problem like handicapped lives. There is no pretentious oratory, no embellished phrasing, no needless repetitions.

Whatever he wrote always followed a logical outline. The theme is stated and developed systematically, and abundantly illustrated from a wide range of reading. His strategy in sermon construction was stated to an interviewer: "Tell them the truth you want to tell them right off. Climax is achieved by showing them the Matterhorn in the beginning, reshowing it again and again, and each time the Matterhorn gets bigger."

The test of all preaching is what happens to the listener as a result. A member of Fosdick's congregation said to him after the service: "I nearly passed out with excitement, for I did not see how you could possibly answer that objection which you raised against your own thought. I supposed you would do it somehow but I could not see how until you did it." A sermon that takes hold of a listener like that cannot fail. John D. Rockefeller said that the greatness of Fosdick's preaching lay in the fact that each person in his congregation thought he was speaking to them. "I never hear him but I say how did he know my problem."