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Baylor University
Institute for Faith and Learning
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    • Baylor Symposium on Faith and Culture
      • 2022 Art Seeking Understanding
      • 2021 Living Accountably
      • 2019 The Character of the University
      • 2018 Stewardship of Creation
      • 2017 The Bible and the Reformation
      • 2016 Higher Learning
      • 2015 The Spirit of Sports
      • 2014 Faith and Film
      • 2013 Kierkegaard: A Christian Thinker for Our Time?
      • 2012 Technology and Human Flourishing
      • 2011 Educating for Wisdom in the 21st Century University
      • 2010 Human Dignity and the Future of Health Care
      • 2009 Secularization and Revival
      • 2008 Bottom-Up Approaches to Global Poverty
      • 2007 Friendship
    • Bill and Roberta Bailey Family Lecture in Christian Ethics
      • Bailey Lecture Video Archive
    • Other Conferences and Events
      • IFL@25
      • 2019 LFP National Conference
      • Art & Soul
      • Pruit Memorial Symposium
      • Baylor University Medical Ethics Seminar
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    • Communio: A Retreat for Baylor Educators
    • William Carey Crane Scholars Program
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      • About the Program: Called to Character
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  • Media and Resources
    • Faith Animating Online Education
      • Starting Points
      • A Christian Imagination about Online Education?
      • Cultivating Character and Online Learning
      • Additional Resources
    • Institute for Faith and Learning Video Archive
    • Baylor Symposium on Faith and Culture Video Archive
    • Bill and Roberta Bailey Family Lecture in Christian Ethics
    • Recommended Reading
    • External Resources
    • The Christian Reflection Project
      • Acedia
      • Advent Ethics
      • Aging
      • Anger
      • Apocalyptic Vision
      • Attentive Patience
      • The Book of Acts
      • Caring for Creation
      • Catechism
      • Chastity
      • Children
      • Christianity and Islam
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      • Cloning
      • Consumerism
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      • Mysticism
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      • Peace and War
      • Pentecost
      • Pornographic Culture
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      • Racism
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      • Sermon on the Mount
      • Singing Our Lives
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      • Traveling Well
      • Virtual Lives
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      • Where Wisdom Is Found
      • Women and the Church
      • Women in the Bible
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Baylor BU Institute for Faith and Learning Media and Resources The Christian Reflection Project Sermon on the Mount
  • Faith Animating Online Education
  • Institute for Faith and Learning Video Archive
  • Baylor Symposium on Faith and Culture Video Archive
  • Bill and Roberta Bailey Family Lecture in Christian Ethics
  • Recommended Reading
  • External Resources
  • The Christian Reflection Project
    • Acedia
    • Advent Ethics
    • Aging
    • Anger
    • Apocalyptic Vision
    • Attentive Patience
    • The Book of Acts
    • Caring for Creation
    • Catechism
    • Chastity
    • Children
    • Christianity and Islam
    • Christmas and Epiphany
    • Cities and Towns
    • Cloning
    • Consumerism
    • Death
    • Disability
    • Easter
    • Food and Hunger
    • Forgiveness
    • Freedom
    • Friendship
    • Gambling Culture
    • Generosity
    • Global Wealth
    • Health
    • Heaven and Hell
    • Hospitality
    • Immigration
    • Inklings of Glory
    • Lent
    • The Letter of James
    • Marriage
    • Membership
    • Monasticism Old and New
    • Moral Landscape of Creation
    • Mysticism
    • Parables
    • Patterns of Violence
    • Peace and War
    • Pentecost
    • Pornographic Culture
    • Prayer
    • Prison
    • Prophetic Ethics
    • Racism
    • Sabbath
    • Schools in a Pluralist Culture
    • Scripture
    • Sermon on the Mount
    • Singing Our Lives
    • Sports
    • Suffering
    • Traveling Well
    • Virtual Lives
    • Vocation
    • Where Wisdom Is Found
    • Women and the Church
    • Women in the Bible
    • Work

Sermon on the Mount

Simple and straightforward, yet endlessly captivating, the Sermon on the Mount is a startling invitation to inhabit an alternative world-where the new creation has come in Jesus himself.

Rather than laying down laws and calling us to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, the Sermon offers "verbal icons through which we may see into God's will and be empowered for the moral life," writes Charles Talbert. Its call for radical obedience is not "for conformity to legitimate external rules, but for the total transformation of a person," Bonnie Thurston agrees. "To be obedient to Jesus is to become as he is, humble and gentle."

Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove calls the Sermon's opening poem, the Beatitudes, the key to living faithfully in a broken world. Shane Claiborne asks how we should make discerning judgments without being judgmental. "Folks are hungry for a Christianity that mirrors Jesus," he notes, "not the judgmentalism that has done more to repel than to woo people towards God's grace."

The study guides and lesson plans integrate Bible study, prayer, and worship to help us central threads in the Sermon on the Mount's rich tapestry of Jesus' teaching. The guides can be used in a series or individually. You may download and reproduce them for personal or group use.

Download the entire Sermon on the Mount issue and the set of six Study Guides. Or, download individual pieces by clicking the titles below.

Articles

  • "Grace in the Sermon on the Mount," by Charles H. Talbert
  • "The Freedom of Obedience," by Bonnie Bowman Thurston
  • "With Ears to Hear," by Richard Ward
  • "The Beatitudes in the Desert," by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove
  • "Jesus Is for Losers," by Shane Claiborne

Art

  • "The Universality of Christ and His Teachings," by Heidi J. Hornik, on Laura James's Sermon on the Mount
  • "Teaching Through Images," by Heidi J. Hornik, on Cosimo Rosselli's The Sermon on the Mount and Healing of the Leper

Hymn and Worship Service

  • "From Galilee He Preaches Still," by Ann Bell Worley
  • Worship Service, by Ann Bell Worley

Inspirational Pieces

  • "You Are Blessed," by Burt L. Burleson
  • "Blessedness," by Joy Jordan-Lake

Book Reviews

  • "The World Is Thus," by Gregory A. Clark
    • Dale Allison, The Sermon on the Mount: Inspiring the Moral Imagination
    • Glen Stassen, Living the Sermon on the Mount: A Practical Hope for Grace and Deliverance
    • Charles H. Talbert, Reading the Sermon on the Mount: Character Formation and Ethical Decision Making in Matthew 5-7
  • "Living the Beatitudes Today," by Arthur Paul Boers
    • Jim Forest, The Ladder of the Beatitudes
    • James C. Howell, The Beatitudes for Today
    • Erik Kolbell, What Jesus Meant: The Beatitudes and a Meaningful Life

Study Guides and Lesson Plans(Download the set of six Study Guides)

  • "God's Enabling Grace"
  • "The Freedom of Obedience"
  • "Interpreting the Sermon on the Mount"
  • "With Ears to Hear"
  • "Beatitudes in the Desert"
  • "Jesus Is for Losers"

Further Reading

  • "Customizing Your Study of the Sermon," by Robert B. Kruschwitz
  • "Making Peace with Our Enemies," by George A. Mason (Peace and War)
  • "Just Peacemaking in an Age of Terrorism," by Glen H. Stassen (Peace and War)
  • "Matthew's Nonviolent Jesus and Violent Parables," by Barbara E. Reid, O. P. (Parables)
  • "The War of the Lamb," by Harry O. Maier (Peace and War)
  • "War in the Old Testament," by John A. Wood (Peace and War)
  • "Mastering Mammon," by Craig L. Blomberg (Consumerism)
  • "Hazmats or Good Gifts?" by Dorothy Jean Weaver (Parables)
  • "The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth," by Arthur Simon (Consumerism)
  • (Book Review) "Lord, Teach Us to Pray," by John Essick (Prayer)
    • N.T. Wright, The Lord & His Prayer
    • William H. Willimon and Stanley Hauerwas, Lord Teach Us: The Lord's Prayer and the Christian Life
    • Kenneth W. Stevenson, The Lord's Prayer: A Text in Tradition
Baylor BU Institute for Faith and Learning Media and Resources The Christian Reflection Project Sermon on the Mount
  • About
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      • 2019 The Character of the University
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      • 2016 Higher Learning
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        • Featured Speakers and Panels
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      • 2015 The Spirit of Sports
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        • Featured Speakers
        • Video Archive
      • 2014 Faith and Film
        Back
        • Video Archive
      • 2013 Kierkegaard: A Christian Thinker for Our Time?
        Back
        • Featured Speakers
        • Video Archive
      • 2012 Technology and Human Flourishing
        Back
        • Featured Speakers
        • Video Archive
      • 2011 Educating for Wisdom in the 21st Century University
        Back
        • Featured Speakers
        • Video Archive
      • 2010 Human Dignity and the Future of Health Care
        Back
        • Featured Speakers
        • Video Archive
      • 2009 Secularization and Revival
        Back
        • Video Archive
      • 2008 Bottom-Up Approaches to Global Poverty
      • 2007 Friendship
    • Bill and Roberta Bailey Family Lecture in Christian Ethics
      Back
      • Bailey Lecture Video Archive
    • Other Conferences and Events
      Back
      • IFL@25
        Back
        • Select Pictures from IFL@25
      • 2019 LFP National Conference
        Back
        • Presenters
      • Art & Soul
      • Pruit Memorial Symposium
        Back
        • 2001 Celebrating Augustine's Confessions
        • 2002 Christianity and Economics
        • 2003 The Schooled Heart
        • 2004 Slavery, Oppression, and Prejudice
        • 2005 Global Christianity
      • Baylor University Medical Ethics Seminar
        Back
        • 2016 Medical Ethics Seminar
        • 2017 Medical Ethics Seminar
        • 2018 Medical Ethics Seminar
      • One-Time Conferences
  • Programs
    Back
    • Communio: A Retreat for Baylor Educators
    • William Carey Crane Scholars Program
      Back
      • Additional Information
    • Missio
    • Forming Character in the Classroom
      Back
      • About the Program: Called to Character
      • Past Workshops
    • Reading Groups and Guest Speakers
    • Soundings Project
  • Media and Resources
    Back
    • Faith Animating Online Education
      Back
      • Starting Points
      • A Christian Imagination about Online Education?
      • Cultivating Character and Online Learning
      • Additional Resources
    • Institute for Faith and Learning Video Archive
    • Baylor Symposium on Faith and Culture Video Archive
    • Bill and Roberta Bailey Family Lecture in Christian Ethics
    • Recommended Reading
    • External Resources
    • The Christian Reflection Project
      Back
      • Acedia
      • Advent Ethics
      • Aging
      • Anger
      • Apocalyptic Vision
      • Attentive Patience
      • The Book of Acts
      • Caring for Creation
      • Catechism
      • Chastity
      • Children
      • Christianity and Islam
      • Christmas and Epiphany
      • Cities and Towns
      • Cloning
      • Consumerism
      • Death
      • Disability
      • Easter
      • Food and Hunger
      • Forgiveness
      • Freedom
      • Friendship
      • Gambling Culture
      • Generosity
      • Global Wealth
      • Health
      • Heaven and Hell
      • Hospitality
      • Immigration
      • Inklings of Glory
      • Lent
      • The Letter of James
      • Marriage
      • Membership
      • Monasticism Old and New
      • Moral Landscape of Creation
      • Mysticism
      • Parables
      • Patterns of Violence
      • Peace and War
      • Pentecost
      • Pornographic Culture
      • Prayer
      • Prison
      • Prophetic Ethics
      • Racism
      • Sabbath
      • Schools in a Pluralist Culture
      • Scripture
      • Sermon on the Mount
      • Singing Our Lives
      • Sports
      • Suffering
      • Traveling Well
      • Virtual Lives
      • Vocation
      • Where Wisdom Is Found
      • Women and the Church
      • Women in the Bible
      • Work
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