Top 40 Sermon Subjects

by James Park

{Historical note: In 2007, this file was replaced by
"50 Cyber-Sermons by James Park":
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/CY-LIST.html,
which will continue to expand over the years
as more cyber-sermons are written.
This older room of An Existential Philosopher's Museum
called "Top 40 Sermon Subjects" remains open
because of existing links on the Internet.
And some of the suggested titles here
might become cyber-sermons in the future.}


Sermon Code (the green letters after some sermon titles):

C.  Christian. Sermons for people from Christian backgrounds,
helping them to make the transition from Christian roots to UUism.

D.  Discussion. Subjects appropriate for group discussion, panels, etc.
We all have experiences, thoughts, questions, & stories on these themes.

N.  Newsworthy. These subjects are so current and perhaps controversial
that the local news media might be invited to cover the event.

O.  Outreach. Sermons especially appropriate for a Sunday
on which you intend to advertise for visitors from the general public,
people who have never before attended a UU service.
These talks presuppose no previous knowledge of UU thinking or traditions.
And they address subjects already alive in the minds
of people on the verge of becoming Unitarian Universalists.


    If you click a title that appears in blue
you will see a synposis and/or outline of that sermon
---and sometimes the complete text of that sermon.

    If the following list were the table of contents of a magazine,
which articles would you turn to immediately?


SPIRITUALITY

1. Introducing Existential Spirituality

2. Spirituality for Humanists: Six Capacities of Our Human Spirits D O

3. Ways to Expand Our Spirits

4. Looking for the Meaning of Life

WHAT IS SPIRITUALITY? 

    1. Beyond the Life of the Body, the Heart, & the Mind .

    2. Ways to Expand Our Spirits .

    3. Self-Transcendence, Self-Criticism, & Altruism .

    4. Freedom:Transcending Enculturation and Choosing for Ourselves .

    5. Creativity: Making Something Genuinely New .

    6. Love: The I-Thou Encounter, Discovering Other Persons of Spirit .

    7. The Disclosure of Existential Anxiety
            and other Manifestations of Our Existential Predicament .

    8. Glimpses of Joy and Fulfillment .


OUR EXISTENTIAL PREDICAMENT

1. Our Existential Predicament and Its Solution

2. Loneliness of Spirit: Deeper than the Reach of Love

3. Being Depressed in Spirit: Deeper than Psychological Depression D

4. Existential Anxiety: Angst D

5. Existential Guilt: Deeper than Pangs of Conscience C D

6. An Existential Understanding of Death:
        A Phenomenology of Ontological Anxiety


RELIGION

1. Lingering Questions about Our Childhood Religious Beliefs C D O

2. Emerging (or Recovering) from Conventional Religious Beliefs C D O

3. The College Campus as Our Mission Field

4. An Existential Interpretation of Christian Mythology:
        Demythologizing the New Testament C O

5. Christmas without Angels:
        How Did the Birth-of-Christ Narratives Arise? C N O

6. The Logic of Belief: Science/Pseudo-Science, Critical Inwardness/Dogma C

7. From Rule-Morality to Rational Ethics:
        Debating the Ten Commandments C D

8. Why I Am A Unitarian Universalist

9. The Next 1,000 Years of Spiritual Progress:
        The Future of Unitarian Universalism

10. Sex-and-Gender Minorities, Sexology,
        and the Unitarian-Universalist Movement

WHICH GODS DO NOT EXIST?

    11. No Gods Created the Universe

    12. No Gods Wrote Holy Books

    13. No Gods Can Save Us from Death

    14. No Gods Are Watching Our Behavior

    15. No Gods Are All-Powerful


LOVING RELATIONSHIPS  

1. New Ways of Loving: How Authenticity Transforms Relationships D

2. Loving without Needing:
        Seven Pre-Existing Needs and How to Transcend Them D

3. Growing in Love:
        21 Ways to Become Less Dependent and More Authentic D

4. Romantic Jealousy: Cause and Prevention D

5. Romantic Love is a Hoax! Exploring Emotional Programming D N

6. Designer Marriage: Write Your Own Relationship Contract

7. Sources of Sexual Fantasies D N

8. I-It Sex versus I-Thou Sex: How Spirit Can Transform Sex D

9. A New Way of Loving: Non-Comprehensive Relationships D

10. I AM a Women's Libber—But I'm Not a Woman!
        Men's Place in the Women's Movement D N

11. Masculinity/Femininity: Loving Beyond our Gender-Personalities D N

12. Four Ways to Achieve Same-Sex Marriage D N

13. The Future of Love & Marriage D

14. Sex-and-Gender Minorities, Sexology,
        and the Unitarian Universalist Movement  D N


PERSONAL GROWTH & LIFE CHOICES

1. Keeping Journals: Personal, Spiritual, Relationship D

2. Becoming More Authentic: The Positive Side of Existentialism

3. Simplify, Simplify: The Advantages of Voluntary Poverty D N

4. Turning Points in the Second Half of Life D

5. New Meanings for the Second Half of Life:
        Re-Creating Ourselves after Children and Work D


MEDICAL ETHICS & DEATH

1. Living Authentically in the Shadow of Death:
        Preparing to Die is Preparing to Live

2. The Right to Die: Voluntary Death and Merciful Death D N

3. Ten Safeguards for Life-Ending Decisions D N

4. Three Differences between Irrational Suicide and Voluntary Death D N

5. The One-Month-Less Club: Live Well Now and Omit the Last Month D N

6. Your 'Living Will': Decide Your Ethics and Write Your Medical Directive D

7. When is a Person? Pre-Persons and Former Persons D N

8. The Living Cadaver: Medical Uses of Permanently Unconscious Bodies D N

9. Twelve Ways to Reduce Health-Care Costs D N

10. Scientific and Philosophical Questions about Life after Death C D


PEACE & SOCIAL JUSTICE

1. Holy War Against Terrorism D

2. How a World Peace Force Would Handle Situations Like Iraq
        Better than the United States as Policeman D


3. Us and Them: Transcending Tribal Thinking D

4. Let's License Parents—And Solve Many Problems at Once D N

5. To What Degree Are We Still Racist? D

6. Religious Cults and Street Gangs D

7. The War on Drugs: The New Prohibition? D N

8. Prison Reform: 3 Kinds of Sentences and 10 Levels of Prison D N

9. The Reversible Income Tax:
        Replacing Social Security, Welfare, & Deductions D N

10. Disarming America: Let's Eliminate All Private Guns D N


    All subjects can be adjusted to suit your particular group.
To arrange a talk, sermon, panel, etc. for your group
on any of these themes (or others you suggest), call or write:

James Park 
Lofts on Arts Avenue #218
1829 Third Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55404
phone: (612) 871-7275.
e-mail: <PARKx032@TC.UMN.EDU >

15th Edition, January 2005

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