Cleophus J. LaRue Jr.

Francis Landey Patton Professor of Homiletics-Retired

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Cleophus J. LaRue, MDiv ’90, PhD ’96, Princeton Theological Seminary’s Francis Landey Patton Professor of Homiletics, earned his BA and MA degrees from Baylor University, his MDiv and PhD degrees from Princeton Seminary. He specializes in the theory and method of African American preaching and worship. An ordained minister in the National Baptist Convention of America, LaRue is the former pastor of two churches in Texas as well as the former interim pastor of churches in Harlem and Jamaica Queens, New York. He is a frequent speaker at churches, seminaries, and conferences throughout the country and is a member of the Academy of Homiletics.

Select Publications

Colored Preaching: The Shape of Christian Proclamation in the Global South (forthcoming)
Rethinking Celebration: From Rhetoric to Praise in African American Preaching (Westminster John Knox Press, 2016)
I Believe I’ll Testify: Reflections on African American Preaching,(Westminster John Knox Press, 2010)
More Power in the Pulpit: How America’s Most Effective Black Preachers Prepare Their Sermons,editor (Westminster John Knox Press, 2009)
The New Interpreter’s Handbook of Preaching (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2008) Co-editors Paul Scott Wilson, Jana Childers, and John M. Rottman
This Is My Story: Testimonies and Sermons of Black Women in Ministry, editor (Westminster John Knox Press, 2005)
Power in the Pulpit: How America’s Most Effective Black Preachers Prepare Their Sermons, editor. (Westminster John Knox Press, 2002)
The Heart of Black Preaching (Westminster John Knox Press, 1999)

Retired