The Power of the Pulpit: How Sermons and Theologians Shape Thought, Culture, and America

Sermons have for centuries been one of the central vehicles by which religious ideas, moral values, social orders, and intellectual currents have been communicated to ordinary people. They are not only theological discourses but also cultural acts: shaping belief, community identity, moral expectations, political attitudes, and often education. In America especially, sermons have played a foundational role—shaping colonial values, fueling revivals, influencing social reform, affecting literary culture, and helping to define the boundaries between religion and public life.

The following influential preachers and theologians—spanning centuries and continents—illustrate how preaching has not only formed religious life but helped shape the moral and intellectual foundations of the modern world.

Key Figures in Preaching and Theology

Over time, countless preachers and theologians have left indelible marks on the religious and moral landscape through their sermons and writings. Below is a list of notable figures, both historical and contemporary, who have shaped the art and impact of preaching — including many women whose voices have transformed the pulpit.

Classical and Reformation Era

• Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) – Catholic theologian; integrated faith and reason through scholastic preaching.

• Martin Luther (1483–1546) – Father of the Reformation; championed preaching in the vernacular and justification by faith.

• John Calvin (1509–1564) – Reformer of Geneva; emphasized biblical exposition and moral discipline.

• John Donne (1572–1631) – Anglican priest and poet; famous for eloquent sermons on sin, mortality, and grace.

Great Awakenings and Revival Era

• Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) – American theologian of the First Great Awakening; preached “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”

• John Wesley (1703–1791) – Founder of Methodism; promoted holiness and social reform through itinerant preaching.

• Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834–1892) – “Prince of Preachers” in London; known for heartfelt, biblically rich sermons.

• Dwight L. Moody (1837–1899) – American revivalist; brought mass evangelism to urban audiences.

Modern Theological Voices

• Karl Barth (1886–1968) – Swiss theologian; emphasized God’s revelation and prophetic preaching.

• Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) – German pastor; preached resistance to tyranny and the cost of discipleship.

• R. C. Sproul (1939–2017) – American theologian; made Reformed theology accessible through teaching and preaching.

• Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968) – Baptist minister; his sermons fused Christian ethics with the struggle for civil rights.

• Billy Graham (1918–2018) – Evangelist; preached to millions worldwide, emphasizing conversion and faith in Christ.

Influential Women in Preaching and Theology

• Catherine of Siena (1347–1380) – Dominican mystic and preacher; influenced church reform through her writings and sermons.

• Phoebe Palmer (1807–1874) – Methodist holiness preacher; early advocate of women’s public ministry.

• Sojourner Truth (1797–1883) – Abolitionist and preacher; delivered the famed “Ain’t I a Woman?” address, merging faith and justice.

• Aimee Semple McPherson (1890–1944) – Pentecostal evangelist; used media to bring preaching to the modern age.

• Barbara Brown Taylor (b. 1951) – Episcopal priest and author; acclaimed for poetic sermons and interfaith dialogue.

• Priscilla Shirer (b. 1974) – Contemporary American preacher and author; known for empowering biblical teaching for modern audiences.

• Beth Moore (b. 1957) – Evangelical author and Bible teacher; advocate for women in ministry and biblical literacy.

Key Figures

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)

• Ministry & Influence: Edwards was a central figure in colonial New England and in the First Great Awakening (ca. 1730s-1750s). His preaching combined intense theological seriousness with vivid imagery, and his sermons were instrumental in awakening religious fervor and revival in America.

• Most Famous Sermon: “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, preached in Enfield, Connecticut (July 8, 1741). This sermon is famed for its powerful, frightening imagery of God’s wrath, Hell, and the precariousness of life without Christ. It was a catalyst for renewed revival and remains one of the most studied texts of the Great Awakening.

• Impact on America: Edwards helped shape American Protestant culture: the primacy of individual conversion, the sense of religious seriousness (sin, judgment, divine sovereignty), and an enduring tradition of revivalism. These became part of American religious identity, as well as part of its literature (sermons were widely published) and educational institutions (many American colleges grew out of religious motives connected to revivalism).

  
  

Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)

• Ministry & Influence: Spurgeon, known as the “Prince of Preachers,” exercised enormous influence in Britain and abroad. He preached and published thousands of sermons; his printed sermons have been among the most widely circulated in Christian history. His style was accessible, emotionally engaging, doctrinal, and deeply concerned with pastoral issues.

• Representative Sermons: While Spurgeon preached many, one frequently noted is “Compel Them to Come In,” a sermon delivered when he was young, which Spurgeon himself thought among his best. Also, his weekly sermons, published as the “Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit” / “New Park Street Pulpit” series, have been immensely influential.

• Impact on America: Spurgeon’s preaching influenced American pastors and congregations through the export of his sermons, the reading of them in America, their inclusion in revival culture, missionary work, etc. Spurgeon made doctrine central, helped shape the expectations of what good preaching should be (serious, biblical, doctrinal, yet practical). His print reach helped set standards for sermon publication and for lay consumption of sermons. The American pulpit tradition—especially in Reformed, Baptist, and other Protestant churches—bears his influence.

  
  

R. C. Sproul (1939-2017)

• Ministry & Influence: Sproul was a more modern theologian and preacher, associated with Reformed theology. Though his fame is somewhat more recent, his work as a preacher, teacher, and author had wide reach. His sermons and lectures (especially via radio, recordings, and publications) helped to popularize theological concepts (like justification, sanctification, the holiness of God) among educated lay people.

• Representative Sermon/Message: There isn’t one single sermon as iconic in quite the same way as Edwards’s Sinners…, but Sproul often preached on the holiness and justice of God, Christ’s atonement, and the necessity of doctrine. His style combines theological rigor with pastoral clarity. The sermon “God in the Hands of Angry Sinners” is actually about Edwards’s sermon but Sproul often reflects on those kinds of themes.

• Impact on America: Sproul’s impact is part of a broader twentieth-century recovery of classical Reformed theology among lay Christians. Through radio, conferences, books, and church ministries, sermons like his influenced theological education, shaped popular understanding of doctrine, and contributed to the identity of conservative Reformed and Presbyterian churches in America (though this is distinct from modern evangelicalism).

  
  

Martin Luther (1483-1546)

• Ministry & Influence: Luther is one of the central figures of the Protestant Reformation. His sermons (often based on readings from Scripture, preached regularly in German for ordinary people) helped shift religious culture in Europe: breaking the monopoly of Latin, arguing for justification by faith, the priesthood of all believers. His preaching prepared the ground for major institutional and theological transformations.

• Representative Sermons: Luther’s sermons on the catechism, his sermons at Wittenberg, and his expositions of Galatians, Romans, etc., are among the key ones. Also famous are his sermons during the Peasants’ War, the “Invocavit” sermons, etc.

• Impact on America: Although not directly preaching in America, Luther’s theological legacy came via settlers, theologians, the establishment of Lutheran churches in colonial America, and influence on broader Protestant culture. The ideas he preached (faith alone, Scripture alone, the importance of preaching in the vernacular) became inherited by many American churches.

  
  

John Calvin (1509-1564)

• Ministry & Influence: Calvin was both a pastor and theologian in Geneva, with massive sermon activity: preaching multiple times a week, expositing Scripture, guiding church life. Calvin’s theology and preaching set patterns for Reformed churches that spread through Europe, Scotland, and later the Americas.

• Representative Sermons: His homilies on various parts of Scripture (Romans commentary, sermons in Geneva) emphasize sovereignty of God, the doctrine of grace, the moral life of the Christian, the community of the church.

• Impact on America: Calvinist theology shaped many colonial churches (Puritans, Presbyterians), influenced early American thinking about covenant, government, law, morality. Concepts such as covenant theology influenced political thought (e.g., the idea that communities have contractual or covenantal relations, that authority is conditional, moral, etc.). Legal and social reform impulses sometimes drew upon Reformed idea of justice, calling rulers to accountability.

  
  

John Wesley (1703-1791)

• Ministry & Influence: Wesley was founder of Methodism, preacher par excellence. He preached extensively (itinerant preaching), often outdoors, to large crowds. His sermons and lectures were also widely published, forming a central corpus of Methodist doctrine: holiness, sanctification, assurance, faith, works, etc.

• Representative Sermons: Wesley’s sermon “A Scriptural View of Christian Perfection” is well known; his sermons on justification by faith, on the nature of Christian holiness, on sin, etc., had wide circulation.

• Impact on America: Methodism became one of the major denominations in America, especially in the 19th century, influencing both religious life and social reform. Wesleyan preaching style—hybrid of revivalist fervor + systematic moral concern—helped shape the culture of revivals (Second Great Awakening), temperance movements, abolition, etc. Methodist circuits in frontier America spread not just the message but a style of lay-led, accessible preaching.

  
  

John Donne (1572-1631)

• Ministry & Influence: Donne was a prominent English preacher and poet (Anglican priest). His sermons are less often quoted for a single famous sermon in America, but his style influenced sermon literature, poetic rhetoric, theological reflection, ideas of mortality, sin, grace.

• Representative Sermons: Donne’s sermons on death, the nature of God, meditation on sin, and sermons such as “Death’s Duel” reflect his poetic and rhetorical gifts.

• Impact on America: Through the Anglican heritage, through literary culture, through sermons being printed and read, Donne’s rhetorical style and intellectual seriousness influenced the way sermons could be written and appreciated. His intertwining of poetic imagery and theological depth lives on in American sermonizers who value style, literary richness, and the interface between faith and literature.

  
  

Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)

• Ministry & Influence: Aquinas was a Dominican friar, theologian, and preacher; though many of his contributions are in systematic theology, his preaching (lectures, sermons) and writing shaped the Catholic tradition deeply. His method (synthesis of theology and philosophy, reference to Aristotle, systematizing doctrine) gave preaching in later medieval and early modern Catholicism a strong intellectual spine.

• Representative Sermons: While perhaps less famous in America for singular sermons (given he long predates the colonial era), his “Catena Aurea” (commentaries on Gospel texts) and many sermons/lectures, lectures on Sentences, etc., represent his understanding of preaching: the integration of Scripture, philosophy, doctrine, ethics.

• Impact on America: Aquinas’s influence came via the Catholic Church’s universities, formation of clergy, the intellectual tradition which shaped Catholic seminaries and theology in America. Ideas of natural law, virtue ethics, the role of reason and revelation—all part of Aquinas—have had influence on moral theology, Catholic social teaching, and even broader American intellectual life (law schools, philosophy, ethics).

  
  

Karl Barth (1886-1968)

• Ministry & Influence: Barth was a twentieth-century Swiss Reformed theologian who was also a pastor/preacher. He is especially known for his break with liberal theology, his emphasis on the transcendence of God and revelation, dialectical theology, and his monumental work Church Dogmatics. But importantly, preaching remained central: he delivered many sermons (in Safenwil, among others), in times of crisis (WWI, etc.), situating scripture in the midst of contemporary suffering and moral challenge.

• Representative Sermons: One notable set are his WWI-era sermons in his village church in Safenwil (summer 1914 etc.), where he addressed war, nationalism, and Christian ethics in a time of crisis. Also his early sermons collected in The Early Preaching of Karl Barth show evolution in his thought from liberalism toward a theology deeply grounded in revelation and the Word of God.

• Impact on America: Although Barth’s influence was originally more European, over the twentieth century his theology filtered into American mainline Protestantism, academic theology, seminaries, etc. His emphasis on God’s transcendence, critique of liberal accommodation to culture, insistence on prophetic preaching (i.e. speaking truth into power) has influenced American theological discourse, preaching theory, and the way ministers approach culture, nationalism, war, and social ethics.

  
  

Dwight L. Moody (1837–1899)

• Ministry & Influence: Dwight Lyman Moody was one of the most influential American evangelists of the nineteenth century. Known for his plain, passionate, and accessible preaching style, Moody emphasized personal conversion, God’s love, and the urgency of salvation. He was not a trained theologian but rather a powerful communicator who connected with working-class audiences. He also founded the Moody Bible Institute, which became a major force in training preachers and missionaries.

• Representative Sermons: Moody’s sermons were not usually academic but practical and evangelistic. One notable sermon, “Christ All in All,” emphasized the sufficiency of Jesus for salvation and life. His simple but heartfelt approach helped spark major revival campaigns in America and Britain.

• Impact on America: Moody’s preaching energized the revivalist tradition in America after the Civil War, shaping Protestant evangelical culture (distinct from modern Evangelicalism as a movement). His focus on conversion and Bible study contributed to the growth of urban revivalism, Sunday schools, missionary work, and institutions like Bible colleges. His sermons helped define the expectation that preaching should be direct, personal, and evangelistic.

  
  

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945)

• Ministry & Influence: Bonhoeffer was a German pastor and theologian known for his resistance to Nazi ideology. While his life and writings (like The Cost of Discipleship) are often emphasized, his sermons also remain deeply influential. He preached courageously in Berlin, focusing on Christ’s presence, discipleship, suffering, and the church’s responsibility to stand against injustice.

• Representative Sermons: Bonhoeffer’s sermon on “The Cost of Discipleship” themes (taking up the cross, obedience, grace) and his Advent and Christmas sermons are particularly remembered. His final sermons, including those preached in prison, often centered on hope, trust in Christ, and costly grace.

• Impact on America: Though Bonhoeffer’s direct preaching career was in Germany, his writings and sermons profoundly shaped American Christianity after WWII, especially in mainline Protestant and academic circles. His insistence that the church must stand against tyranny influenced civil rights leaders and American theology of social responsibility. His sermons modeled a fearless, Christ-centered proclamation in the face of cultural and political oppression, setting an enduring example for American preachers seeking to unite faith with justice.

Influence Over Time & How Sermons Helped Shape America

Putting these figures together, some patterns emerge:

1. Religious Revivals & Social Reform

   Sermons often motivate revivals (as with Edwards, Wesley). In America, these revivals (First, Second Great Awakening) led not just to renewed religious fervor but to social reforms: temperance, abolitionism, prison reform, educational institutions, etc. The content of sermons (sin, salvation, holiness) provided moral frameworks that undergirded activism.

2. Biblical Literacy, Print Culture & Education

   Sermons have served as texts, printed and studied. In colonial America, sermons were often among the first books printed locally; they circulated. Figures like Spurgeon had enormous print reach. This helped foster literacy, shared moral vocabulary, theological debate among laypeople. Many colleges in early America had religious aims, training clergy, and using sermon texts in instruction.

3. Shaping Moral & Political Attitudes

   Sermons helped define what was morally acceptable: questions of slavery, rights, duties, governance. The idea of covenant, of moral law, of responsibility, often came out in sermons. Though sermons were not political speeches per se, they shaped the moral infrastructure for political action (e.g. abolition, civil rights). Preachers often addressed injustice, war, peace, nationalism (as Barth did later), etc.

4. Cultural Identity & Place in the World

   Sermons helped define American religious identity: Puritan seriousness, Methodist revivalism, the role of lay culture, piety, religious toleration. The expectation that good society depends on moral virtue, often undergirded by religious faith, was often sermon-borne. The sermonic tradition also shaped America’s literary and rhetorical traditions.

5. Theological Transmission & Denominational Foundations

   Preaching defined denominational identity—Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican, Methodist, Baptist. Sermons both articulate and preserve doctrine. The influence of Calvin and Luther provided Reformed frameworks; Wesley, Methodist; Aquinas in Catholic theology; Donne in Anglican tradition. Their sermons provided models for doctrine, preaching style, liturgy.

   
   

Sermons & Why They Matter

To highlight further, here are a few sermons (or sermon collections) that are particularly important, and why:

• Spurgeon’s “Compel Them to Come In” — It shows his young zeal, focus on evangelism, urgency, the call to enter Christ. It encapsulates his pastoral-heart and evangelistic impulse.

• Barth’s WWI-era sermons at Safenwil — These show how sermons can be responses to present crisis: war, nationalism, moral failure, and show that preaching is not only personal (sin, salvation) but public: critique of societal ideologies. His sermon of September 6, 1914 (for example) explicitly denies that war is blessed by God.

• Wesley’s sermons (e.g. Christian Perfection) — providing theological-ethical exhortation: how Christians are to live, grow in holiness; these shaped Methodist practice and also influenced wider revivalist and moral reform movements.

• Calvin and Luther’s expository sermons — e.g. Luther’s German sermons helped solidify vernacular preaching; Calvin’s sermons in Geneva shaped communal life; their preaching established a pattern of reading scripture systematically and applying it to daily life.

• Donne’s sermons on mortality, grace, death — these deal with universal human concerns, not only religious belief but existential questions; they contribute to the seriousness with which sin, life, death are treated in Christian culture.

• Aquinas’s sermons/lectures — though often more academic, they provided a framework by which reason, ethics, natural law, and theology are held together; this became especially influential in Catholic American intellectuals and institutions.

  
  

How America Was Shaped

Putting it all together, one might say that America’s religious, moral, and intellectual foundations have been profoundly shaped by sermons through:

• Moral Imaginary: Sermons help constitute what people believe is right or wrong, just or unjust, what is virtuous. These beliefs underpin laws, civic norms, social expectations.

• Community Cohesion: From colonial meetinghouses to modern churches, sermons are shared experiences that build collective identity, shared language, ritual rhythm (Sundays, revival meetings, etc.)

• Public Discourse: Sermons sometimes anticipate or feed into public debates: on slavery, war, rights, nationalism, education. Though often framed in religious terms, they contribute to broader moral and political discourse.

• Education & Literacy: As noted, sermons were among first texts — reading sermons, hearing them, discussing them, drove literacy and philosophical/theological reading among broader audiences.

• Institution Building: Seminaries, colleges, missionary societies, publishing houses, all sprung up around or in part because of the sermonic tradition.

Conclusion

Sermons are more than religious exercises; they are agents of change. The lives and sermons of Edwards, Spurgeon, Sproul, Luther, Calvin, Wesley, Donne, Aquinas, Barth, and more show different styles and emphases, but all contribute to how belief is formed, how communities define themselves, how moral life is shaped. In America, this heritage is visible in our religious institutions, our moral vocabulary, our literate culture, our reform movements, and the expectations people bring to public life (regarding justice, conscience, duty, virtue, etc.).

As much as we would have liked to, we could not include every influential theologian in this already lengthy list. For more, please see our list of Famous Theologians and Sermons or search "Henry", our online catalog.

References

• Barth, K. (1914–1921). The Early Preaching of Karl Barth: Fourteen Sermons. Princeton Theological Seminary. https://barth.ptsem.edu/the-early-preaching-of-karl-barth/

• Bonhoeffer, D. (1997). The Collected Sermons of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Fortress Press.

• Day, D. (1952). The Long Loneliness. Harper & Brothers.

• Edwards, J. (1741). Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. Enfield, CT. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinners_in_the_Hands_of_an_Angry_God

• Luther, M. (1522). Invocavit Sermons. Wittenberg.

• Calvin, J. (1564). Sermons on Ephesians. Banner of Truth.

• Wesley, J. (1771). Sermons on Several Occasions. London.

• Spurgeon, C. H. (1860–1892). The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit. Passmore & Alabaster.

• Moody, D. L. (1881). Moody’s Anecdotes and Illustrations. Fleming H. Revell.

• Donne, J. (1631). Death’s Duel. London: John Marriot.

• Aquinas, T. (1273). Catena Aurea. Rome.

• Sproul, R. C. (2000). “God in the Hands of Angry Sinners.” Banner of Truth USA. https://banneroftruth.org/us/resources/articles/2000/god-in-the-hands-of-angry-sinners/

• Taylor, B. B. (1998). The Preaching Life. Cowley Publications.

• McPherson, A. S. (1923). This Is That. Echo Park Evangelistic Association.

• King, M. L., Jr. (1963). Strength to Love. Harper & Row.