The Divine Voice: Christian Proclamation and the Theology of Sound

"Freedom begins in the ear before it reaches the mouth." Every once in a while a book comes along that profoundly makes the most original thoughts immediately familiar. The Divine Voice is such a book. Stephen Webb challenges readers to take sound seriously. Not only did God's first "sounds" speak the world into being, but sound and voice have also played an undeniably central role in biblical revelation, prophetic proclamation, and the New Testament call to verbal witness. Webb goes on to make the surprising claim that the obligation of all Christians to witness to their faith is "inseparable from the need to acquire and practice the rhetorical skills of public speaking." While the very words "public speaking" might strike terror in many readers' hearts, Webb confronts the issues of stage fright and speaking disabilities head-on, pointing his readers to the biblical narratives concerning difficult speaking. The Divine Voice performs its own significant insight: the life of the pilgrim is not just a spatial journey, but is an audition of sorts, in which we take the Bible's words as our own. As Webb points out, the good news is that we've already been cast in the play. Now, we can embrace a life of witness by rehearsing and "inhabiting the sounds of faith." An indispensable book for preachers, students of homiletics, and all concerned to see (and hear) sound in new ways.