Title: Preaching Doctrine for the Twenty-First Century / the Foolishness of Preaching: Proclaiming the Gospel against the Wisdom of the World / the Sunday Lectionary: Ritual Word, Paschal Shape
Abstract: Preaching Doctrine for the Twenty-First Century. By Robert G. Hughes and Robert Kysar. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1997. viii +136 pp. $14.00 (paper). The Foolishness of Preaching: Proclaiming the Gospel against the Wisdom of the World. By Robert Farrar Capon. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1998. x + 154 pp. $18.00 (paper). The Sunday Lectionary: Ritual Word, Paschal Shape. By No and Bonneau. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1998. xii + 175 pp. $14.95 (paper). Though the subject of each of these three books is reflection on and inquiry into the components of proclamation, they approach their shared task in strikingly different ways. One book directly examines the theological bases on which a sermon is constructed; the second stimulates the imagination of the preacher; and the third provides a historical and liturgical rationale for the choice of scriptural passages. Yet, they do have concerns and emphases in common: The primary concern of each is the theological formation of Christians in community, and their shared emphasis is on accomplishing that formation by centering proclamation in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. To preach death and resurrection is to preach the theological themes of the Bible, themes the church has made its own in its doctrina or teaching. In Preaching Doctrine for the Twenty-First Century, Hughes and Kysar begin their explication of the difficulty of that task by summarizing the events that have led to the substitution of pablum for proclamation. These authors write convincingly that the church is as responsible for the demise of theological acumen as the culture it seeks to convert. Among the church's deficiencies is a failure to educate people in the faith. There is a spirit of anti-intellectualism within the clergy; and the dilution of cognitive content in sermons in favor of the exploration of new styles of preaching has resulted in theological superficiality from the pulpit. But preaching as a theological task is also affected by forces at work in our communities. The secularization of society is unmistakable in a culture whose gods are consumerism and individualism. The authors write, We will have to rediscover the social dimension of [the] traditional doctrine [of justification by faith] in its originator, the apostle Paul, in order to form the theological consciousness of our new listeners (p. 17). In our self-centered culture, authority is questioned in the search for simplistic solutions. Transcendence is unfathomable. Empiricism is the only truth. Personal experience, as manifested in psychologies of self-actualization and new-age spirituality, has taken precedence over shared traditions; and postmodernism, with its stress on language as the substance of being, promises to deconstruct tradition even further. They explain, [P]ostmodernism is minimally a new human consciousness, a new appreciation of the role of language and its social qualities, a suspicion of so-called universal truths, and a new understanding of human relationships (p. 9). But postmodernism's stress on language as the center of understanding offers preachers new opportunities to reframe experience and redescribe reality. As Hughes and Kysar write, Because language is power, the re-languaging of tradition brings the tradition to new reality in a new age (p. 15). The authors then present five principles undergirding a method for homiletical theology in a new reality and a new age. This chapter is followed by a demonstration of exegetical method for preaching theological themes, reflections using story to form theological consciousness, and analyses of various crafting techniques. Hughes and Kysar furnish the reader with a concise synopsis of contemporary currents in preaching. Much of what is presented here is not new, but it is framed in a helpful and compellingly persuasive way. Moreover, this book offers sound instruction in moving from past formulas to present homiletical needs without sacrificing theological fundamentals. …
Publication Year: 1999
Publication Date: 1999-04-01
Language: en
Type: article
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