Gospel Voices
Forty New Testament Characters Telling Their Stories
Foreword by Anna Carter Florence
Imprint: Resource Publications
176 Pages, 6.00 x 9.00 x 0.35 in
- Paperback
- 9781666779622
- Published: November 2023
$18.00 / £15.00 / AU$28.00
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Imagine listening in as Mary Magdalene experiences that first Easter. Join Lazarus after Jesus raised him from the dead. Share with Mary the mother of Jesus in exile in Egypt after escaping Bethlehem. These are just some of the forty monologues this book offers. Arranged around the seasons of the church's year, these imagined reflections offer familiar characters from the four Gospels and Acts. They are joined by a wider cast of women and men: someone in the crowd listening to John the Baptist, a young woman at the Last Supper, pilgrims in Jerusalem at Pentecost.
Each monologue is brief enough to use in public worship. As a preacher and worship leader, Neil Thorogood treasures the opportunity to open the Bible with others, and hopes these pieces will add to that experience. They offer new ways into familiar texts, sitting alongside biblical passages to open fresh encounters with Scripture and all it reveals.
As someone who regularly seeks out good worship material, Thorogood knows the importance of quickly finding the right thing for the right moment. The indexes show which biblical texts each monologue is based upon, and link each piece to relevant seasons in the Revised Common Lectionary.
Neil Thorogood has been a minister of the United Reformed Church in the UK since 1992. He is currently serving two congregations in and around Bristol. Before this he was first tutor and then principal of Westminster College, Cambridge, for fifteen years, teaching practical theology. He is also active as a visual artist. Neil is married to Jenny and they have two sons.
“These inspired short pieces turn words into flesh, as characters from the Gospels tell their stories. With humor and humanity, Neil Thorogood brings them to life before our eyes. These wonderful monologues, deeply faithful to the text and fed with both learning and imagination, open pages you thought you had closed. Whether read in private, or from the Sunday lectern, they will intrigue, move, and bless.”
—Susan Durber, president from Europe, World Council of Churches
“I knew of Neil Thorogood’s gifts as a visual artist, but here he shows his skill in sketching word portraits of New Testament characters. Deft, scholarly, sensitive, and imaginative. These ‘Ignatian’ reimaginings of Gospel (and Epistle) scenes are laced with exegetical insights as well as spiritual provocations and delights.”
—Doug Gay, senior lecturer in practical theology, University of Glasgow
“Cedar, eucalyptus, and fir: simply by naming the wood in Jesus’s hands, his world and mine become one. With the imagination of an artist, knowledge of a preacher, and sensitivity of a pastoral minister, Neil Thorogood has created a beautiful companion to biblical faith and ministerial leadership. Filling familiar stories with detail and bringing untold stories onto the page, these texts are unsettling and tender, spacious and generous—welcome thresholds to Bible study, liturgy, and prayer.”
—Janet Gear, program coordinator for ministry vocation, United Church of Canada
“Neil Thorogood’s creative gifts coupled with his Spirit-led imagination have resulted in a treasury of pieces that will be meaningful encouragement to pastors and anyone who leads in liturgy and worship. These imaginative reflections will also serve individuals, groups, and families as we together travel through the liturgical year.”
—David Deters, spiritual director
“Neil Thorogood uses his rich artistic imagination to invite us into deeper reflection and conversation with the story of Jesus as experienced by key figures in the gospel narratives. Each of these accessible portraits of someone around Jesus opens up new devotional and homiletical meaning, for pastoral leaders and lay people alike.”
—Jesse Zink, principal, Montreal Diocesan Theological College
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