The Rev. Dr. Leah D. Schade is the Associate Professor of Preaching and Worship at Lexington Theological Seminary in Kentucky. An ordained Lutheran minister (ELCA) for more than twenty years, Leah earned both her MDiv and PhD degrees from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia (now United Lutheran Seminary). She has pastored congregations in suburban, urban, and rural contexts. She is the author of seven books, including Preaching in the Purple Zone: Ministry in the Red-Blue Divide (Alban Books/Rowman & Littlefield, 2019), which explores how clergy and congregations can address controversial social issues using nonpartisan, biblically-centered approaches and deliberative dialogue. Leah is also the EcoPreacher blogger for Patheos, and her forthcoming book, Preaching and Social Issues: Tools and Tactics for Empowering Your Prophetic Voice, will be published by Alban Books/Rowman & Littlefield this fall.
The Importance of Moral Discernment: An Extended Review of Ordinary Faith
October/November 2024: Ordinary Faith as an Antidote to Polarization (Volume 24 Issue 5)
[1] Amidst a society wrenched apart by forces hell-bent on splintering the body politic as well as the Body of Christ, Amy Carr and Christine Helmer have co-written Ordinary Faith in Polarized Times which offers a theological framework for helping Christians engage in moral discernment and “justice-seeking.” For the authors, the concept of Christian identity […]
Preaching Across the Political Red-Blue Divide: Using the Sermon-Dialogue-Sermon Method in the Purple Zone
October/November 2019: The Ethics of Dialogue and Debate (Volume 19 Issue 5)
[1] Parts of this article are adapted from Schade’s book Preaching in the Purple Zone: Ministry in the Red-Blue Divide (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019). [2] In the first two months of 2017, I conducted a survey of mainline Protestant clergy in the United States to assess how preachers were approaching their sermons during this divisive time in our […]
Review: Earth Ethics: A Case Method Approach (Orbis Books, 2015)
September/October 2017: Lutherans and Sanctification (Volume 17 Issue 5)
[1] Understanding the complexities of socio-environmental ethics is a daunting task. Even the most dedicated eco-ethicist is hard-pressed to have a comprehensive command of the facts and figures of the issues competing for our attention. This is why Earth Ethics: A Case Method Approach is such a vital addition to the library of any professor, […]