Shadows and Symbols provides the preacher with sixteen exemplary messages based on first lesson texts from the Common Lectionary. During the Lenten season texts are drawn from the Pentateuch and the Major Prophets. The seven messages from the Easter season are based on stories from the book of Acts and focus on life and ministry within the first church.

Carl L. Jech teaches philosophy, religion, and humanities at DeAnza College in Cupertino, California, and at the College of Marin in Kentfield, California. He is also a performing artist who has been the tenor soloist with numerous San Francisco Bay area muscial organizations. He has served congregations in Michigan and California and was campus pastor at the University of Wisconsin -- Whitewater. He graduated from Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, and holds the M.Div. degree from Wartburg Theological Seminary and the Th.M. degree from Harvard Divinity School.