T. D. Jakes, a Dallas-based minister known for the Pentecostal fervor in his sermons, was dubbed "America's Best Preacher" by Time magazine

Christian Century, Oct 10, 2001

T. D. Jakes, a Dallas-based minister known for the Pentecostal fervor in his sermons, was dubbed "America's Best Preacher" by Time magazine. Bishop Jakes, 44, made the September 17 cover. He was honored with 15 others in Time's five-part "America's Best" series. Also, Duke University Divinity School's Stanley Hauerwas, 61, was named best theologian.

Time religion writer David Van Biema discussed choices for top preacher with experts from a variety of denominations and watched videos of candidates. Hauerwas's approach to theology was described in the magazine by Jean Bethke Elshtain, a professor of social and political ethics at the University of Chicago. "Hauerwas has been a thorn in the side of what he takes to be Christian complacency for more than 30 years," she wrote. "For him, the message of Jesus was a radical one to which Christians, for the most part, have never been fully faithful," she said. "It is faithfulness to a complex tradition that forestalls being overtaken by majoritarianism or convention."