Redemptive-historical narrative preaching as a homiletical alternative for preaching on suffering

Humans live by experiencing various types of sufferings, directly or indirectly. For this reason, it is evident that one of the topics of great interest in congregations is the question of suffering. This study aims to present redemptive-historical narrative preaching as a homiletical strategy for preaching on suffering. Redemptive-historical narrative preaching can be a homiletical alternative for preaching on suffering because it improves the weaknesses of the traditional homiletic and new homiletic and further develops their strengths. In this study, we will identify the main problems of preaching on suffering in Korean churches. Then, we will discuss redemptive-historical preaching and narrative preaching, which form the foundation of redemptive-historical narrative preaching. Finally, we will propose and explain the redemptive-historical narrative preaching in detail and why it is suitable to respond to contexts of suffering within congregations.Contribution: Redemptive-historical narrative preaching has greater significance, not only in terms of overcoming the limitations of redemptive-historical preaching and narrative preaching but also in maximising the advantages of both. This research would contribute to the field of homiletics of the Hervormde Teologiese Studies journal.

Towards a New Homiletic

Feminism’s contribution to homiletics so far has arguably been restricted to exploring gender difference in preaching. In 2014, however, Jennifer Copeland identified a need not merely to ‘include women “in the company of preachers” but to craft a new register for the preaching event’. This article considers what that new register might be and how it might be taught in the academy. It defines preaching as ‘the art of engaging the people of God in their shared narrative by creatively and hospitably inviting them into an exploration of biblical text, by means of which, corporately and individually, they might encounter the divine’ and proposes that in both the Church and the Academy, women’s voices are suppressed by a rationalist hegemony. For the stories of women to be heard, a new homiletic is needed, in which would-be preachers first encounter themselves, then the Bible as themselves and finally their congregation in communality. Findings of researchers in practical preaching discover that women preachers are being influenced by feminist methodology, while the teaching of preaching is not. In order to achieve a hospitable preaching space, it is proposed that the Church and the Academy work together towards a new homiletic.

Conductive Preaching: Narratology, Homiletics, and the Poststructural Turn

This paper traces the major shifts that have taken place in the field of homiletics over the last century, focusing especially on the formation of the “New Homiletic,” a reversal of the movement of preaching from deduction (essay-like) to induction (story-like). Next, the paper engages the so-called poststructural turn in literary theory and philosophy, articulating the ways that these developments challenge the movement of homiletics. Lastly, in critical conversation with the history of homiletics as well as the impact of poststructural theory, this paper offers a new way of conceiving the movement of preaching as neither deductive nor inductive, but conductive.

Unfinished and Unfolding Tasks of Preaching: Interdisciplinary, Intercultural, and Interreligious Approaches in the Postcolonial Context of Migration

Addressing the preacher’s need to identify their social locations as a preacher, this article explores three critical approaches for homiletics in the postcolonial context of migration: interdisciplinary, intercultural, and interreligious. The interdisciplinary approach to homiletics was sought in the New Homiletic movement but has yet to be fully pursued. Continued dialogue with other disciplines is urgent in a context where complicated postcolonial realities must be addressed. The intercultural issues of preaching are equally important in this context. This paper, therefore, sketches the changing ecclesial landscape where a monolingual homogeneous white congregation and preacher are no longer a norm. How can preaching reflect multivocality and prevent linguistic minority members from being tokenized? The power imbalance embedded in the language of the preacher needs consideration. The interreligious approach has only recently appeared on the horizon of homiletical thought, challenging the Christian-supremacist positions and interpretative practices. Overcoming Christian-centrism, the article argues, can happen once the fear of the other, the fear of difference, and the fear of mixing are acknowledged in the preaching event. Interreligious reality is unfolding and inevitable as a marker of our postcolonial migration context. It potentially ushers in an exciting opportunity for the study of Christian preaching, if we are willing to embrace it.

Stages of Communal Formation in the Middle and Late Meccan Periods

This chapter focuses on the process of communal formation in the middle and late Meccan time and the way the Qur’an reflects this process. This involves the construction of a “text world” whereby the stories of “God’s people” are told in relation to their predecessors among the earlier religious communities of the Jews and the Christians, as well as the emergence of anti-pagan polemic as a major theme in the proclamation. It also involves the alteration of existing mythic narrative paradigms and the emergence of new homiletic instruments, namely, the usage of parables and the distinctive Qur’anic simile or “likeness,” the mathal.

The theological background of the demythologized spirit in preaching

The Christian church has believed that the work of the Holy Spirit is essential in the ministry of preaching. In the development of contemporary homiletics, namely the New Homiletic, however, the work of the Holy Spirit is often found missing and minimized. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that the neglected role of the Holy Spirit in preaching within the New Homiletic is not a mere coincidence, but a necessary consequence of the eventfulness of preaching that the New Homiletic has been engaged in. This is to be proven by examining (i) the demythologization program of Rudolf Bultmann and (ii) the concept of “language-event” or “word-event” of the new hermeneutic, which was appropriated to the eventfulness of preaching by the New Homiletic.

Empirical research on the experience of the New Homiletic in South Korea

The purpose of this article is to present empirical research to reveal the reality of the New Homiletic in South Korea. This research was conducted by means of semistructured interviews with seven pastors and eight laypeople of the evangelical faith, residing in Seoul and its metropolitan areas, within the age limits of 20�59 years. The aim was to uncover the experience of the sermons by both the preachers and the hearers of the sermons. The researcher chose Pieterse�s methodology of analysing the data, which is an inductive analysis called open coding. Six main categories from the pastor�s group and five categories from the laypeople emerged from the data. The categories were rearranged into four themes, which is a valuable finding for current-day Korean preaching in order to enhance the homiletical praxis.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article presents empirical research on the reality of the New Homiletic in South Korea. The results indicate similarity between South Korea and the USA. The conclusion is that traditional discourse should give way to the New Homiletic. This research can become the basis for finding new strategies for evangelical preaching.Keywods: Preaching; South Korean church; Empirical research; New Homiletic