Duke University Chapel Dean and Professor Luke A. Powery is one of the general editors of a new, nine-volume lectionary commentary series that provides new resources to help preachers connect congregations to Scripture.

The series, Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship, was published by Westminster John Knox Press in September as part of a partnership with Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Texas.

Connections offers creative commentary on each reading in the three-year cycle of the Revised Common Lectionary starting September 2018 and ending in March 2021. Each reading is first viewed through the lens of its connections to the rest of Scripture and then by seeing the reading through the lenses of culture, film, fiction, ethics, science, and other aspects of contemporary life.

The lectionary commentary includes commentaries on the Psalm readings that connect them to the other readings for the day and to the congregation's experience of worship. Readers will discover relevant, in-depth, imaginative reflections on the lectionary by some of this generation's leading biblical scholars, theologians, homileticians, and other scholars.

An associate professor of homiletics at Duke Divinity School, the Rev. Dr. Powery is also the author of Spirit Speech: Lament and Celebration in Preaching, Dem Dry Bones: Preaching, Death, and Hope, and Rise Up, Shepherd! Advent Reflections on the Spirituals; and coauthor of Ways of the Word: Learning to Preach for Your Time and Place.

See videos of Dean Luke A. Powery on How We Teach Preaching at Duke Divinity, Why Preaching Matters, and the Value of Self-Knowledge in Preaching.