A practical model for developing sermons for occasions when the Bible offers little specific guidance for interpreting an issue, need, or situation. Allen describes why and how topical sermons should be used, discusses special occasions when they are appropriate, and outlines strategies for developing topical sermons, giving particular attention to controversial issues. Appendixes. Notes.

The editor of this work, Ronald J. Allen, was Professor of Preaching, and Gospels and Letters at Christian Theological Seminary for thirty-seven years. He is the author or editor of forty books, including The Sermon without End, coauthored with O. Wesley Allen, Jr. (2015). He is also a coeditor of the three-volume Preaching God's Transforming Justice (2012) and the editor of the widely used sermon collection Patterns of Preaching (1998).