By A. Carl Prince, M.Div. July 10, 2006 While the 1st and 2nd Century verdict of preaching was perceived as foolishness to the Greeks and a stumbling block to Jews, it is my pervasive predilection that the core and circumference of liturgical life militates around preaching. So essential is preaching in the life of the ecclesiological arena and secular culture that in Romans 10:14-15, the Apostle Paul posited the following threefold interrogative. How, then can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? Consequently, I am categorically convinced our spiritual formation is shaped by preaching, e.g.-that which we believe and hold true theologically and anthropologically is hammered out on the anvil of preaching and is generally enunciated by a perpendicular personality called the preacher. Philosophically, the Apostle Paul saw the preaching of the gospel as his ontological obligation and its abandonment as an affliction. In terms of preaching the gospel, Paul posited in 1 Corinthians 9:16, “For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!†What is this phenomenon called preaching? Couched in ambiguity a clarification of the phenomenon of preaching are many splendid things. To say the least, the phenomenon of preaching is multicultural, multi-linguistic, multifaceted as well as unquestionably multidisciplinary. Not only is preaching a multicultural art form that addresses the cultures of countless countries and ethnic groups; preaching is multi-linguistic, lifted in various languages around the globe. As a multifaceted phenomenon encompasses many genres of preaching that will be addressed in greater detail later in this exchange. In a multidisciplinary manner preaching speaks to a range of psycho-social and spiritual contexts. Comprehensively preaching comprises all the preacher says and does both verbally and nonverbally. Categorically preaching is both a visual as well as vocal process. Preaching is an articulate as well as well as anatomically action-oriented activity. While we may not always perpendicularly and piously posture ourselves behind an ecclesial dais expounding the Word of God, we preach through our human interactions. These visualized, action-oriented preaching presentations beyond the sacred desk often provide a public theater of our persons that speak louder than any sermon ever preached in the parish. They linger longer and arrest the attention like none other. In terms of the art of preaching, Homiletics is the science of preaching and teaching and comprises all forms of preaching, viz., the sermon, homily and catechetical instruction. Consequently, preaching is no helter-skelter exercise in empty elocution. There is a procedure and progression to preaching. There is a course of action to its engagement, even a method to its madness. Sermonic presentations or preaching isn’t monolithic but pluralistic. There is no infallible, all encompassing global cookie-cutter approach to preaching. Nonetheless, preaching remains at its core a process. In his book, The Certain Sound of the Trumpet, the late pulpiteer, educator, theologian and par excellence homiletician Dr. Samuel Dewitt Proctor posited a dialectical method of preaching. In this prophetic paradigm, he emphasized an antithesis, thesis, synthesis methodology of preaching. The late Dr. Miles Jerome Jones, former pastor of Providence Park Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia affirmed Paul Tillich's correlation method of preaching. Through the correlation method, Dr. Jones, as skillfully as the Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci placed paint on canvass, made preaching come alive in all of its hues. In the book entitled On the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons, Fourth Edition, by John Broadus, Vernon Stanfield hones in on topical, textural, topical-textural and expository preaching. In Preaching, Fred B. Craddock lifts a theology of preaching that proceeds from silence, is heard in a whisper and is shouted from the housetop. In Homiletic by David Buttrick, Buttrick lifts the moves and structures of preaching, the place of preaching, the language and style of preaching and more. Three of the most prominent sermons include the topical, textual and expository sermons. Delineated thusly, topical preaching preaches about the bible. Textual preaching preaches from the bible and expository preaching preaches the bible. Other sermon types include biographical preaching that traces the story throughout the bible while evangelistic preaching emphasizes conversion. The genre Redemptive-Historical preaching is considered contextual-soteriological preaching, connecting the biblical context with salvation. While Jesus Christ was the world’s greatest extemporaneous preacher, preaching without notes in the Sermon on the Mount, others remain manuscript preachers who employ notes in their sermonic presentations. History is replete with preachers who waxed eloquently unfolding the mystery of the Kingdom of God. Just as their types of sermons preached varied so did the thrust of their message. The leading exponent to the Gentile world the Apostle Paul preached Christ crucified. Peter preached repentance. Bishop Ambrose, the fourth century Bishop of Milan was a mystagogical preacher. The Great Awakening preachers preached fire-and-brimstone. Although there is often a disturbing disconnect between their preachments and political practice, many evangelicals today preach morality. In Preaching for Black Self-Esteem, Dr. Henry H. Mitchell, a venerable, 50 year voice from the black pulpit and theological academia weighed in on the black experience and black preaching offering stellar self-esteem insight to resurrect the buried hopes and dreams of African American youth. In his book Preaching Liberation, James H. Harris, Senior Pastor of Second Baptist Church and professor of Pastoral Theology at the School of Theology at Virginia Union University both in Richmond, Virginia echo Cone as he posits Liberation preaching as the prophetic instrument that restructures society. “Liberation preaching encourages blacks and the poor to participate in the system, to get an education, to get involved in the political process and to do those things that will gradually help to change and transform society.†In terms of preaching in the black church tradition the thesis of Dr. Cleophas J. LaRue, Homiletics professor at the Princeton University Divinity School provide instructive clarity for the homiletic exercise. In short, LaRue’s thesis is that the distinctiveness of black preaching lies in African Americans’ conception of God and their way of interpreting scripture. Moreover the social experiences of African Americans have provided the matrix for both the theological conception and the biblical hermeneutic. While there are a multiplicity of ways of conceptualizing God as noted by Europeans cosmic conceptualizations that maintained the illegitimate system of chattel slavery for four hundred years in North America and Process approaches that see God as universal and indiscriminate in his affection, James Cone, celebrated as the Godfather of Black Liberation preaching posits an alternative view. Cone contends a black theology of liberation is indispensable in altering systemic societal arrangements that run afoul of ethics and integrity. Cone identifies his conceptualization and biblical hermeneutic as antithetical to both Eurocentric and Process theologians indicating, “God is on the side of the oppressed.†For the black theologian James Cone, black preaching is definitive preaching. It not only centers on sin and the ethical imperative to love one another and honor God in our actions but it prophetically pivots on the systemic ills of society and calls both humanity and systems of evil to account. The salient normative in black preaching is its healing anthropological hermeneutic and a hopeful ontological homiletic. Black preaching affirms our ethnic identity and pays homage to both the hope of our existential arrangement as well as our eschatological aspirations. Thus, black preaching, e.g., black homiletics and hermeneutics is contextualized preaching in a decontextualized context. The ontological and epistemological assumptions of black preaching suggest there is something spiritually off center within the culture, something egregiously inconsistent, at venomous variance in humanity that needs eternal atonement, which needs to be spiritually set right. Black preaching then is the preaching of an atonement theology that seeks to set things right cosmologically. It is participatory communication that calls humanity to participate in God’s cosmic call to be spiritually, socially and ecotheologically reconciled to Him. When the black preacher assumes the theological task of speaking on behalf of God, often body bent in a semi-perpendicular posture from the wear and tear of their years, they stand in dignity with a distinctive word from the divine for sun scorched sons and daughters of the Diaspora. Black preaching is an axiomatic word of liberation to captive masses yearning to be free. In the black socio-cultural context Black preaching does not capitulate to the majority culture but seeks to overhaul Western hegemony that routinely seeks to undermine black self-determination. The domains of black preaching are multifaceted and include feminist preaching. Within the framework of theological discourse, the epistemological mandate of feminist preaching is to challenge and seek to shift the paradigm of androcentric patriarchal structures and stereotypes that unceasingly undermine and interrupt women’s authentic and equal access, inclusion and advancement in the ecclesia. Grounded in an unashamed understanding of the call of God upon his/her life, black preachers’ preaching celebrates the assorted African American genres of God talk. In terms of social justice, black preaching unapologetically speaks truth not only power but holistically to the human experience. Black preaching speaks truth to systemic structures of power from a unique theological, anthropological and historical vantage point. It lifts a prophetic word to its oppressor through perpendicular personalities that have been personally pierced by the pain and paralysis of poverty and prejudice. Lest we become arrogant as prophetic personnel, we must remain vigilant that our place in the prophetic peccking order does not become paralyzed by pride. For at best, we are nothing more than dust on duty for divinity. Despite our mega churches, prestigious appointments, conspicuous consumption or copious credentials, we are no more than earthen vessels, soiled servants. Our genesis came from the ground. Though we have been categorically called and commissioned by the cosmic, sent by the celestial and empowered to articulate and advocate on behalf of the eternal, we need to stay grounded, never overlooking where we came from. Let me park here parenthetically to say unapologetically, in a culture that deifies humanity, the office of the pastorate as well as professorships often have a tendency to succumb to egomania. Regrettably, many clergy have developed a catastrophic condition. Tragically too many clergy today have psychologically and spiritually lost connection with their grounding. In their extraordinary arrogance, they’ve developed a spiritual amnesia that has not only caused them to overlook who God is but to disregard who they are not. Many have tragically forgotten who called and commissioned them for Christian service. Rather than celebrate the God of their salvation for His willingness to employ them in his enterprise, like charlatans they merely celebrate themselves. Yet, despite our stratospheric stardom, we need to remain psychologically and spiritually grounded, fully cognizant of the fact that we are not indispensable to the process. While black preaching is not a perfect profession, I am heartened that overall, God still has an innumerable host who are authentically called to the redemptive enterprise and remain grounded in the unapologetic understanding that they’ve been honored to serve in the black preaching profession. Regardless of their positions of prestige, their extensive accolades or the countless thousands they stand before weekly, they understand their identity remains one of disposable dust on duty for divinity. With this anatomical and theological ethos historically, black clergy have ministered to their collective social striving from the contextualization, concretization and conscientization of their African, African American and Christian heritage. In Africa under kings and queens, black preaching was with us. Through our dehumanization as chattel slave cargo aboard blood soaked slave ships of the Middle Passage, black preaching was resident among us. Throughout our African American odyssey as instruments of European exploitation and forced Western acculturation, black preaching sustained us. Though we were compelled to be collateral for colonial commercial exchange, our constant companion has been the apparatus of black preaching. It marvelously ministered to our masses mired in misery. Black preaching honors our ancestry’s slave religion, acknowledges the anguish of our American experience. Black preaching preaches hope to the hurting huddled masses despite their often hellish conditions in a politically raging inferno. Black preaching is hopeful preaching in pathos. It calls the black community to dare to dream despite its Western destabilization deprivation, degradation and often disintegration in their contemporary context. Let me clarify the goal of preaching in the church and society. The goal of preaching is not to pander to the preconceptions of the pew, politicians or the mainstream media. Neither is the goal of black preaching to prove the preacher’s perspicuity, i.e., their prophetic grandiloquence. The goal of black preaching is redemptive communication through divine revelation for the purpose of holistic liberation through the dual venues of social and spiritual transformation. In its most uncontaminated configuration, black preaching is not counterfeit commentary but authentic utterance that comes undiluted from the oval office of eternity. Black preaching is divine revelation for the purpose of spiritual education and empowerment. Black preaching is celestial communication with an eye to social and spiritual transformation with the ultimate end of human salvation. Black preaching is informational, inspirational and transformational preaching. Black preaching lifts the light and love of God’s Word for the dual purposes of spiritual emancipation and social empowerment. Black preaching sets free that we might engage in socially redemptive service for the one who has called us out of darkness into the marvelous light. Black preaching was born in African slave religion and has been our constant companion throughout our African American odyssey. The sacred text is the central source and soul of black preaching. Black preaching is the locus of faith development. For millennia in the recursive arena of black preaching, faith has been fashioned for billions and whether via trained or untrained black clergy, it was by the foolishness of black preaching that blacks found a stimulus for their faith formation. The preaching trajectory or homiletic arc of black preaching has always included a minimum of six systematic fundamentals including a theology, Christology, a celebration of our theological anthropology as made in the imago Dei, soteriology, pneumatology, and eschatology. While the style may have been different, i.e., mystics, lecturers, hoopers, etc., the black preaching genre has long been intimately acquainted with these distinctive elements under various classifications. Preaching is not a secular but sacred process. In the House of God and the global community, black preaching is a theological exercise exhibited in a sociological context that intentionally seeks the ear of fallen humanity. Black preaching is a portable process. Black preaching is not confined to the lofty pulpits of American, African or European culture. Black preaching is a portable process that crosses continents, cultures, and socio-spiritual conditions. Internationally, black preaching is universal preaching. It is a prophetic word for the world. Yet it is simultaneously in process preaching. That is to say black preaching is never a finished product. Like an unfinished masterpiece, black preaching is dynamic preaching, continuously being conceived, stroked and critiqued by its practitioner as well as its prime mover. While others have weighed in on this matter, I contend preaching a text without a context is a pretext for serious hermeneutical and homiletical misappropriation of the manuscript and any prophetic voice who engages in such is guilty of prophetic malpractice to say the least. Yet tragically, all too many preachers preach with no critical consideration of the context of the text, what the German Protestant theologian Hermann Gunkel considers the Sitz im Leben or setting of the text. The relevant question is how can we preach a particular pericope without doing our exegetical work to excavate and elicit the authentic context or setting of the text? For a proper discernment of the context of the text is crucial for an authentic exegesis and engagement of the text. Black preaching is contextual preaching. It critically examines the Sitz im Laben or setting of the text, e.g.-the occasions certain biblical passages were written for, the genres in which they were written such as in the form of letters, poems of lament, parables, psalms, and songs. Through the Sitz im Leben or social setting of the text, black preaching explores the myriad interrogatives of the text in terms of who the speaker of a passage is. An examination of the Sitz im Laben raises questions of their role in life, the nature of their audience, etc. Taken out of context, the original meaning of the pericope is often shattered. Things literal become allegorical. Poetry is taken as prose and more. Thus, the Sitz im Laben of the text is critical in reconstructing the culture and conditions of the Judeo-Christian tradition for black preaching today. Preaching a text without its proper context creates catastrophic homiletical confusion. What’s more, this questionable exercise raises serious psychological and spiritual questions of the preacher guilty of such malpractice. While other religious preachments pivot on prominent persons, we do not merely preach a prominent person. The person we preach is the Second Person of the Holy Trinity in the express personage of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The apparatus of Black preaching is forever contemporary, continuing to have social and spiritual relevancy today and tomorrow. As quiet as its kept, black preaching like all other preaching is a phenomenon in fitful flux, always striving but never quite arriving and constantly seeking a more excellent way. While I feel strongly there have been many outstanding black clergy across America, several prominent prophets are unsurpassed. In Richmond, Virginia, the persuasive and prophetic, 55 year plus, venerable voice of Dr. Benjamin W. Robertson, Sr. and Dr. John Kinney, Dean of the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University come to mind. In Washington, D.C., Dr. H. Beecher Hicks, Jr. stands at the apex of all prophets. In Baltimore, Maryland, the young Son of Thunder, Dr. Jamaal Bryant is unsurpassed. In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania no one is more skilled a homilitician than Dr. William A. Shaw, President of the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. In New York, Dr. Johnny Youngblood, Dr. Floyd Flake and Rev. Al Sharpton remain unrivaled. In Detroit, Michigan, Dr. Charles Adams and Dr. James Perkins transcend anything terrestrial and extraterrestrial pulpit giants. In Atlanta, Georgia, Rev. Dewey Smith is spectacular. In Dallas, Texas, Dr. Freddie Haynes, III. is untouchable. In Houston, Texas, Dr. A. Louis Patterson and Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell are scintillating. Charles Booth in Ohio is a preaching professional. In Chicago, Illinois, Dr. Jeremiah Wright and Rev. Jessie L. Jackson are two of the most anointed and informed intellectuals of the black pulpit ever. In Los Angeles, California, Bishop Charles Blake stands superlative. Finally, former Arch Bishop Desmund Tutu of South Africa is the Godfather of black preaching in the motherland. In a stratosphere all their own are the intellectually exciting and homiletically inviting Dr. Renita Weems, Dr. Katie Cannon and Dr. Vashti M. McKenzie. Posthumous preachers include the late Dr. Prathia Hall, Dr. Martin L. King Jr., Dr. Emmanuel Scott, Dr. E.V. Hill, Dr. E.K. Bailey, Dr. William A. Jones and Bishop Gilbert E. Patterson. Retired preachers include two quintessential princes of the pulpit in the personage of Dr. Gardner C. Taylor and Dr. Caesar A. W. Clark. Black preaching is the black preacher’s perpetual preoccupation. Categorically, like the ebb and flow of the tide, black preaching is an unappeasably unfinished business. The authentic African American cleric of any ilk, having traversed the world, nonetheless, finds preaching insatiably irresistible. In the words of the prophet Jeremiah, it is fire shut up in his/her bones. From American slave plantations through Reconstruction, the Harlem Renaissance, the Jim Crow Era, Civil Rights Movement, the dismantling of Apartheid in South Africa to our 21st century odyssey, black preaching has been and remains a deep and durable phenomenon. Though in many instances black preaching struggles to find its voice and its message is often threatened by megaministries that preach a prosperity gospel that celebrates immediate gratification for the sake of Western assimilation and personal gratification, black preaching shall stand. Black preaching shall stand because God is on the side of black preaching. Despite a new homiletic that emphasizes immediate access; God continues to rouse the moral conscience of the nation through the eloquent intonation of black preaching. While I have clearly left many things unelucidated in this critique, this was done intentionally. For no word on the depth and breadth of black preaching is ever the final word. It is only a word, however erudite. Let me posit as a postscript that black preaching has a rich and robust heritage. Through the ages black preaching has been iconoclastic, organizing and mobilizing the masses to take a stand against oppression to change the world. When the dust settles and the history has been written on the phenomenon of black preaching, I am persuaded it will hear God, the Heavenly Father say, well done thou good and faithful servant. To God be the glory for the distinctive of black preaching! 2006 Mount Hope Baptist Church. All Rights Reserved. Preaching Quiz 1. Explain Apostle Paul’s position concerning the need for preaching? 2. What is the phenomenon called preaching? 3. What is the ontological nature of preaching? 4. What is catechetical instruction? 5. Explain Dr. Samuel Dewitt Proctor’s method of preaching. 6. Explain Dr. Miles Jerome Jones’s method of preaching. 7. What is the difference between textual and topical preaching? 8. Why Jesus was called an extemporaneous preacher? 9. Dr. Henry H. Mitchell believed in preaching to enhance self-esteem. Please explain? 10. What is liberation theology? 11. What is a deductive message? 12. What is an inductive message? 13. When would you preach an expository message? 14. What is the difference between exegesis and hermeneutics? 15. What is a “griot� How does it relate to preaching? 16. According to Amos Jones, preaching should do three things. What are they? 17. What roles do your proposition; argument and proof play in preaching? 18. What has been the role of preaching in history? 19. What is the distinctiveness of black preaching? 20.What is biblical preaching? Using Dr.Proctor's method, prepare a 1200 word or less message called, "God is on the side of the oppressed." This project is due by April 30,2008.First,second and third place awards will be given.Contact:escoyancey@yahoo.com
