In the Protestant tradition, preaching plays a very important role in ministry. Clergy devote a lot of time and energy to this task, and William Sloane Coffin was no exception in this regard. This impressive collection brings together the sermons he preached from 1977 to 1982 as senior minister at the prestigious Riverside Church in New York City.

Coffin was deeply committed to peace and justice and known for his protest against the war in Vietnam, his ministering to the American hostages in Iran, his battles against poverty and nuclear proliferation, and his advocacy for victims of AIDS. In many of these sermons, he tries to stir the consciences of his parishioners. As Martin Marty points out in the introduction, Karl Barth's approach may have animated Coffin: "Take your Bible and take your newspaper and read both. But interpret newspapers from the Bible."

Alongside these political and ethical commentaries, Coffin preached many sermons on traditional texts and celebrated American holidays with his own special ideas. Here is a sampler of quotations from various sermons to give a flavor of the entire volume:

God's Love
"God's love does not seek value; it creates it. Our value is a gift, not an achievement. It is not because we have value that we are loved, it is because we are loved that we have value."

A New Mystery
"Christianity is not clearing up old mysteries; it is the disclosure of new mystery. It is not a truth that you can master; it's only one to which you can surrender."

Forgiveness
"Guilt is important to quicken our imagination, to enlarge and sensitize our hearts, to show us how much we need the grace of God. But after that its usefulness is over. Christians are not sinners; they are forgiven sinners. The rejection of forgiveness is as wicked as the denial of sin."

Homosexuality
"Now I don't know whether God loves homosexuality, but I do know that God loves homosexuals. And I know exemplary Christians who happen to be gay. Are they to be attacked for something over which they have so little choice? Before rushing in with easy judgments, it would seem to behoove those of us who are not gay to listen carefully to what our fellow Christians who are have to say about the matter."

Reducing Human Suffering
"At a time when more and more of our church members are getting involved in the politics of this city and of this nation, and when it is so easy to participate in politics of defiance, it is worth remembering that there is only one decent commitment, and that is the commitment to reduce human suffering. That's what caring is all about. That's what this church should be all about — to reduce human suffering."

A Lover's Quarrel with the World
"We, too, must carry on a lover's quarrel with the world, so that when, like Harry Emerson Fosdick, we depart this life, we leave behind a little more truth, a little more justice, a little more peace, a little more beauty, than would have been there had we not cared enough about the human race to quarrel with it, not for what it is, but for what it yet might be. On this day, let our prayer be: Oh, God, take our minds and think through them, take our lips and speak through them, and take our hearts and set them on fire. Amen."