I Will Tell You the Mystery
A Commentary for Preaching from the Book of Revelation
Imprint: Cascade Books
The book is a commentary on preaching from the book of Revelation. Working through the book of Revelation verse by verse, the commentary seeks to help the preacher recognize what the book (with its apocalyptic theology) invited people in antiquity to believe and do. . . . The book of Revelation communicates through a series of word-pictures. Allen explains each word-picture in light of its ancient setting. The commentary brings the viewpoint of the book of Revelation into conversation (through mutual critical correlation) with contemporary theology, especially process thought. The work aims to help the preacher to help the congregation identify what they can genuinely believe and confidently do. Believing that the best preaching arises from the local context, the volume does not include full sermons, but, rather, seeks to raise issues and questions that might be thought-provoking.
Ronald J. Allen is Professor of Preaching and Gospels and Letters, Emeritus, at Christian Theological Seminary. He is the author or editor of forty books including a volume on preaching as conversation with O. Wesley Allen Jr., The Sermon without End. He is also one of the editors of the three-volume Preaching God’s Transforming Justice: A Lectionary Commentary and the widely used Patterns of Preaching: A Sermon Sampler, which overviews thirty-four ways of structuring sermons.
“Allen brings to the table John the prophet, late first-century churches, empire (both past and present), process theology, contemporary congregations, and preachers. The heated conversation that ensues unravels the strange, apocalyptically coded imagery of Revelation without domesticating the mystery it offers. Sermons that grow out of this conversation will help the church resist evil and construct a new world.”
—O. Wesley Allen Jr., Southern Methodist University“Ronald Allen prophetically urges preachers and listeners to deform their empire-oriented life and way of thinking, to reform their belief and action in divine love, abundance, justice, mutual support, and peace, and to transform contemporary forms of empire here and now together with God. Overall, I Will Tell You the Mystery is well worth reading and a significant commentary resource for preaching and for educating with the inspired lens of progressive process theology and conversational theology in the mode of mutual critical correlation and a focus on the empowerment of God’s vision throughout the book of Revelation.”
—Namjoong Kim, Claremont School of Theology
“Revelation offers readers a choice. We can align ourselves with the actions and values of empire or we can remain faithful to God and assist in creating a new heaven and earth. Allen helps preachers mine the depths of Revelation so that they can bring their communities to awareness, confession, and repentance, ultimately committing themselves to the creation of a just, sound, sustainable, peaceful world.”—Mary Donovan Turner, Pacific School of Religion
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