How do listeners create meaning when hearing a sermon? In this cutting-edge homiletical study, Marianne Gaarden draws on sociological, psychological, and other empirical research to offer new perspectives and presents the notion of the Third Room of Preaching, the place where the preacher's words and the listener's prior experiences come together and new meaning emerges. The new research insights challenge conventional understandings of preaching and invite homileticians to reflect theologically on the implications for the sermon as an act of communication. In addition, the book includes an appendix that offers new perspectives on how to best educate and train preachers in light of that research. -- back cover.