Clyde E. Fant, Jr. was pastor of the First Baptist Church of Richardson, TX. The service begins with organ music (00:00-04:41). The speaker gives a word of prayer (04:42-05:25). Clyde E. Fant, Jr. is introduced as the Adams Lecturer (05:26-08:18). The choir sings a song of worship (08:19-10:11). Fant’s lecture is entitled “The American Pulpit, Another Victim of Recent Bad History,” and he begins with Richard Baxter and John Bunyan of the Puritan tradition whose preaching were characterized as lively and personable yet legalistic and rigid (10:12-18:40). Fant moves to the Great Awakeners, George Whitfield, Jonathan Edwards, and Timothy Dwight, and he says that their preaching was defined by great flair, utilitarianism, and sometimes exploitation (18:41-33:08). Fant then examines many 19th century preachers who transformed the sermon into printed form for popular consumption, but they fell to the elegance of print (33:09-40:42). Fant concludes with the recent bad history of American preaching, and he says that preaching in modern America suffers from legalistic moralizing, which he calls the Massachusetts Bay Error (40:43-51:17). The service ends with a word of prayer (51:18-51:53).
