The late Peter Gomes was one of the most distinguished, colorful, and well-known preachers in America during the last quarter of the twentieth century. Twenty years ago, I published a book-length essay on his preaching, The Place Belongs to God: Twenty-five Years of the Preaching Ministry of Peter John Gomes in The Memorial Church, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 1995).

Having written the only book-length critical study of Peter’s preaching, I would like to begin the process now of writing a critical biography of him, and this proposal requests funding to allow me to use a three-month sabbatical leave from my current ministry to begin interviewing the people who knew Peter best. Although a number, like Peter, have already died, many are still alive, and the longer the gap between Peter’s death and the start of his biographical interviews, the more of that original and irreplaceable source material will be lost.

I would like to begin audio- and videotaping interviews with Peter’s colleagues, friends, parishioners, and family members and depositing copies of those tapes with Peter’s papers in the holdings of the Andover-Harvard Theological Library. At a future date, I propose to add to those tapes with further recordings and/or transcripts, and begin the process of assembling that raw material into a working draft biography. The raw video footage will be available for future documentary filmmakers.