The Sermon Without End

This book compares and contrasts preaching as conversation. Since the first third of the twentieth century the relationship between preaching and the public sphere has been debated in the long established churches along the lines of the differing approaches to culture in Paul Tillich and Karl Barth, with attention to the growing influence of fundamentalism as offering its own approach to preaching and the public sphere. Currently, three theological approaches to the relationship between preaching and the public sphere dominate approaches to preaching in the long established churches. In different ways, these approaches take into account the movement from the modern mindset of the mid-to-late twentieth century and the emerging postmodern worldview. We use the notion and language of apologetics as a way to distinguish how these schools of thought approach the relationship of preaching and the public sphere While apologetics is popularly understood as defending the Christian faith against outside attacks, an older and deeper approach understands apologetics as making a case, initially, for insiders for a particular interpretation of the Christian faith and its relationship to culture. The apologetic orientation of the preacher determines the purpose and make-up of the sermon. The three theological families mentioned above understand apologetics as follows: Liberal preaching originated as an attempt to articulate a version of Christian faith that was at home in the Enlightenment (intellectual, scientific) world view, with its confidence in human progress. However, it too easily collapses the distinction between the worldviews, values and ethics of the public sphere and those of the church. Such preaching moves into the public sphere to the degree that the church is left without a distinctive life and message. Evangelical preaching originated in reaction against liberal theology. Preaching in this tradition defends the truth of the Bible and Christian faith against the many challenges put forward by the Enlightenment (scientific, Modern) worldview, and many values and ethics of the public sphere. This preacher uses modern (Enlightenment) assumptions and methods to argue that the Christian faith is factually true as passed down in its premodern shape. This preacher largely regards the culture as an enemy of faith. Preaching from Neoorthodox (descended from Barth) and Postliberal (descended from Lindbeck and Frei) perspectives admonishes the church to live according to its own language and values and to bypass the modern worldview with its emphasis on scientific and philosophical standards of truth. The postliberal approach seeks to defend the church from being determined by the modern world view and other values and ethical assumptions of the public sphere. This book will recommend and describe a fourth option that has not received sufficient attention in homiletical literature but that offers a distinct point of view.