The Drama of Preaching

Participating with God in the History of Redemption

Watkins

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781498278607
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Preaching is dramatic. Through it, we hear the voice of the living God as he speaks to us both through the reading and the preaching of the word of God. But where do the hearers of sermons fit into the drama? This book suggests ways in which the drama metaphor may help to address age old questions about the centrality of the gospel and the place of the hearer in preaching. As God in Christ is the central character in the biblical drama of redemption, he also calls hearers to understand their role in creatively, yet faithfully living according to the biblical script. Thus, no sermon is complete until God's redemptive work is powerfully proclaimed, and his people are instructed in how they too are participating in the Missio Dei. In this work, Hebrews 11 is employed as a means of showing how God not only reveals his redemptive work to his people, but also through them. As postmodernism sets the stage of contemporary preaching, The Drama of Preaching interacts with some of the particular challenges preachers face in engaging postmodern listeners, that they might not only be hearers, but doers of the preached word.

1

Continuing an Unfinished Discussion

The Redemptive-Historical Preaching Debates Yesterday and Today

What has become of RH preaching? Did Trimp’s plea for a reconsideration of some of the important questions from the earlier debate go unanswered?1 Arie Baars puts it well by asking, “Has RH preaching gone out with the tide?”2 In this chapter we shall consider the current climate of interest in RH preaching, both inside and outside the Netherlands. We will suggest that interest in RH preaching has waned in the Netherlands since the earlier debates, and we will consider some of the reasons why this is the case. We will then look at the way in which there appears to be a surge of interest in RH preaching (and matters related to it) outside the Netherlands. Related to this second point, we will demonstrate that the interest in RH preaching is not limited simply to preaching per se, but extends also to other theological branches, such as hermeneutics, systematic, and historical theology.

Interest in Redemptive-Historical Preaching in the Netherlands

It is fair to say that the level of interest in RH preaching in the Netherlands (the so-called “birthplace” of the movement) has waned considerably since the earlier decades of its inception. Evidence for this is found not only in Trimp’s attempt to revive the discussion, but also in the academic material that has been published on preaching in recent decades.3 This is not to say that there is no interest in RH preaching, for in fact the opposite is the case. There are currently both academic and popular attempts to continue discussions related to RH preaching; however, in the contexts where these efforts continue, there has clearly been development from the older expressions of RH preaching to what it is now. This is most immediately seen in the work of Trimp’s successor, Kees (C.J.) de Ruijter, and his numerous homiletic publications. The most recent, Horen naar de Stem van God, is an attempt to address several of the issues Trimp raised in the twilight of his career, such as the place of the Trinity in homiletic reflection and, perhaps more importantly, the idea of focusing on the immediate needs and situation of the hearer in preaching.4

Further attempts to not only revitalize, but also advance the discussion in the Netherlands can be seen in recent PhD dissertations. Kees van Dusseldorp, for instance, has developed a homiletic approach that weaves together certain threads of the RH preaching paradigm with current trends in narrative theology.5 Additionally, Jos Douma’s 2008 dissertation, Veni Creator Spiritus, develops and advances some of Trimp’s homiletic concerns, with particular emphasis on the role of the Holy Spirit (an attempt to correct a perceived overemphasis on Christology at the expense of pneumatology), as well as reflecting further on the role of the hearer in preaching.6 Still, there is a sense in which many in the Netherlands who are familiar with the early debate and its representatives would see the RH paradigm as being somewhat ouderwets (old-fashioned), and would respectfully relegate it to the well-respected but virtually untouched trophy case of the past. We would like to now consider a few reasons why that may have become the case, since doing so will help us appreciate not only why interest in RH preaching may have waned in the Netherlands, but also why it may be finding traction in other places for largely different reasons.

In order to appreciate the rise and fall of RH preaching in the Netherlands, it needs to be seen in its historical and ecclesiastical context. To a large extent, developments in RH preaching were embodied particularly in one, modestly sized denomination, the Gereformeerde Kerken in Nederland (vrijgemaakt) (hereafter GKv). This denomination was born in the context of a difficult ecclesiastical controversy and the long, dark shadow of a world war.7 The new denomination began in 1944 as an offshoot of the Gereformeerde Kerken in Nederland (hereafter GKN). One of its foremost leaders was Klaas Schilder, a well-educated and prolific pastor-theologian-churchman. Schilder attained a heroic persona within the denomination. Biographers depict him as a brilliant theologian and churchman who stood against a rushing tide of issues that threatened the church. He bravely opposed the atrocities of World War II and, like many pastors in that period, ministered in a context of fear, sacrifice, and deep loss.8 Though Schilder’s theological views were embraced by some and rejected by others, his principled, tireless, and self-sacrificial nature would seem to justify many of the laudable things that have been said of him. Numerous churches, pastors, and congregants followed the leadership of Schilder through a large controversy which became known as the “Vrijmaking” (liberation).9

At the heart of this ecclesiastical controversy was the doctrine of the covenant and the particular concern for the proper way to address the baptized people of God through preaching. Much has been written on this subject, and it is not our intention to repeat what has been written elsewhere. Still, the long and tense debate surrounding issues related to Abraham Kuyper’s view of the covenant are an undeniable part of the justification for the new denomination in 1944. Concerns over the nature of the covenant, baptism, and assurance of salvation all intersected in this debate, not simply questions about preaching. But perhaps the real tipping point was the fact that those who did not embrace Kuyper’s view of the covenant felt that it was being imposed upon them in a way that was conscience-binding beyond the church’s established polity.10 While it is not our intention to evaluate the ecclesiastical issues within that debate, it could be suggested that one of the reasons why RH preaching may have waned so quickly is that it was born in the context of this largely inward-facing, ecclesiastical debate.11

Another key background against which the development of RH preaching also needs to be seen is the modernistic, critical approach to the Bible, with its attack upon the Bible’s history, unity, and integrity. Advocates of the RH preaching paradigm saw themselves as defending a consistently Reformed, orthodox response to the higher critical paradigm insofar as the RH approach sought to stress the continuity and integrity of the Bible, and especially the importance of history. Emphasizing the covenantal continuity of the Bible was not simply perceived as the most proper way to approach the Bible homiletically; it was also seen as a significant apologetic tool to help keep the foundation of the church from being swept away by the swiftly moving tide of modernism.

This apologetic concern can be illustrated by the way in which some of the early advocates of RH preaching saw a threat in the writings of Karl Barth and the “neo-orthodox” approach...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Continuing an Unfinished Discussion
• Chapter 2: The Drama of Redemption and Redemptive-Historical Preaching
• Chapter 3: Hebrews 11: Setting the Stage
• Chapter 4: Hebrews 11: A Theatre of Martyrs
• Chapter 5: Application or Imitation?
• Chapter 6: Imitating the Saints
• Chapter 7: Preaching the Christ-Centered Drama of Redemption in the Postmodern Scene
• Summary and Overall Conclusion
• Appendix: Samenvatting (Dutch Summary)
• Bibliography