The Renewed Homiletic
Overview
The major shift in the study and practice of preaching in the 1970s and 1980s, labeled the New Homiletic, turned toward the hearer. The purpose of preaching focused less on persuasion and more on transformation, less on asserting religious truths and more on offering an experience of the Gospel. Instead of viewing language as referential, its creative, evocative nature began to be emphasized. Thus homiletical strategies utilizing induction, celebration, story, narrative structures, and moves replaced a deductive, propositional approach to preaching.
Now three-and-a-half decades after this shift began, preachers recognize that the homiletical landscape has continued to evolve in ways that influence how preaching ought to be done—for example, the rise of postmodernity, the decline of the mainline church, cultural pluralism, and biblical and theological illiteracy.
Those considered to be the pillars of the New Homiletic—David Buttrick, Fred Craddock, Eugene Lowry, Henry Mitchell, and Charles Rice—discuss how to change their homiletical approach for a new day. Each of these distinguished scholars offers a lecture describing how his mind has changed, preaches a sermon reflecting these changes, and participates in a panel discussion with younger respondents.
In the Logos edition, this volume is enhanced by amazing functionality. Important terms link to dictionaries, encyclopedias, and a wealth of other resources in your digital library. Perform powerful searches to find exactly what you’re looking for. Take the discussion with you using tablet and mobile apps. With Logos Bible Software, the most efficient and comprehensive research tools are in one place, so you get the most out of your study.
Top Highlights
“Another sermonic form that has had lasting influence is the Puritan Plain style of preaching. Arising in late sixteenth-century Calvinism in England and New England, the form emphasizes less thematic preaching of three points and more exposition of Scripture. There are three major parts of the sermon—first, commentary on the ancient text in its ancient setting; second, eternal doctrinal points drawn from the exposition of the ancient text; and third, application of the doctrine to the current lives of those in the congregation—biblical exegesis, theological interpretation, moral exhortation.” (Page 3)
“‘Postmodern’ means that science is chastened and humbled by its repeated defeats. Modernism was marked by a confidence in progress: science is going to bring an end to the ills of the world. But science will now say to you, ‘We’re being whipped every day—Parkinson’s, AIDS, cancer, Alzheimer’s. We’re losing, we’re losing.’” (Page 47)
“These two homiletical forms together have dominated most of preaching in the West for the last four or five centuries” (Page 3)
“the sermon’s content determines the appropriate form, rather than the form determining how the content must be presented” (Page 5)
“the deductive logic and propositional approach to preaching they represent have been maintained” (Page 3)
The insights of the New Homiletic were too revolutionary to be allowed to slip, like hulls of abandoned ships, under the tidal waters of an advancing age. Now refurbished in this fine volume, they continue to interpret the nature of language, metaphor, and narrative so essential for biblical preaching in our postmodern era.
—Paul Scott Wilson, professor of homiletics, Emmanuel College, University of Toronto
That the future of our discipline is in good hands is evidenced . . . by the diverse group of smart and insightful colleagues in the homiletics guild assembled [here]. I rejoice in the wealth of their assessments and constructive offerings.
—Richard L. Eslinger, From the Afterword
- Title: The Renewed Homiletic
- Author: O. Wesley Allen
- Publisher: Fortress Press
- Print Publication Date: 2010
- Logos Release Date: 2013
- Pages: 160
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subject: Preaching › Congresses
- Resource ID: LLS:RENWDHOMLTCALLEN
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-02-12T05:24:24Z