The four elements of black preaching might also be called the four corners of the art. As stated earlier, our aim is to shed light on the uniqueness of black preaching as a celebrated art form. While traditional categories are helpful in grasping the structure of black sermons and their functional value, the way sermons move and empower black audiences and reach their desired objectives is more important. Thus the description of black preaching as a four-cornered universe is designed to identify the functional nature of black sermons. While narrative, expository, and other forms of sermonizing also have specific functions accompanying their structures, we employ different descriptions which reflect more precisely the dynamics of the African-American oral traditions.

Thus we say that black p…